December 23, 1967.

The second my rubber soles of my combat boots touched the tarmac stepping off the ramp of the bird having to squint my eyes from the sun, at the end of the runway, I knew I had made a big mistake. What on earth am I doing here? This is the place where I will be spending 13 months, oh boy I’m in for a treat.
This wasn’t my idea, this writing in a journal thing. I’m not the type that likes to write down his feelings and then share it to his stuffed animals over tea time, so don’t start getting any ideas. My mom gave me the thing before we shipped out and made me promise that I would use it, so I guess I’ll try.
I don’t really know how to do these types of things so I guess I’ll start with this; my name in L.Cpl. Charley Brown Smith, ya I’ve heard all the peanut jokes. My parents thought it was funny, its not. I have 4 siblings, 2 sisters and 2 brothers. Molly is a math freak and going to Harvard on a full ride. Sammy and Emily are one grade apart but they’re two grades ahead in math. John and I are also one year apart, we didn’t get blessed with the brains like the other three, most of the time John and I would be happy if we made a 70 for the year. Mom and dad were always on John and I to be more like them, I guess that one of the reasons I joined. I’m not going to miss that, but one thing that I will miss is Ashley, my fiancé. Ashley and I started dating in 8th grade and we’ve been in love ever since. I proposed to her at prom when we won prom king and queen. Instead of giving her a crown I put the ring on her finger, she was confused until I got down on one knee. We were planning on getting married April 30th, that is until the army decided otherwise. It almost broke her heart when she read the conscription letter.
In a couple of letters from him he told me how hot it is over here, but I thought he was full of bull, but dang its December 23 and 115 °F and about 300% humidity. My uniform is soaked in about the 2 seconds of stepping off the bird. The noise is defining, between the artillery going off, guns shooting, people shouting, and helicopters and planes landing and taking off you can’t hear a dang thing. And the mix of sweat, gasoline fumes, avionics fuel, motor oil, and cordite, the stench was almost as deadly as the jungle at night.
As we stood on the tarmac roasting, the other soldiers were all laughing at us, “Fresh Meat” as they liked to call us. As we stood in our role call lines they were getting on the bird to go state side. Their uniforms were faded from the sun, their boots were scuffed and brown from the dirt, their faces were unshaved and looked like they had through hell about 20 times. The truth is they probably had. We looked like a groom about to get married compared them.
As we stood under the blazing sun for role call, the sweat dripped from every inch of skin, the parts that weren’t covered and exposed to the sun was starting to cook like bacon. We cooked for the better half of an hour until finally the sergeant came over for role call. It would of taken about 10 minutes to do the job but instead he had to make a comment after he read off each name.
“Brown the hell kind of name is that? Sounds like a sissy’s name!” He shouted
He didn’t call me a sissy but I promised my mom I wouldn’t cuss in here so. He wasn’t the friendliest of guys.
After he was satisfied that he had compared everybody’s name to some part of the human body he gave us our company assignments.
“Brown… ah that cant be right.” He said as he looked up from his clipboard. “ Says here you’re assigned to B-Company!”
“Yes Sir that’s what they told me.” “Well shit, may God be with you son. May God be with you.” He said. And at that moment I knew I had made a bad choice. The last few days have been like a swift punch in the b I mean gut. Sorry mom I’m trying. I didn’t get a chance to wright yesterday, things over here are worse then you think. After we got released from staging, I was wondering around like a chicken with its head cut off looking for B-Company. I finally found them with the help of an officer.
“What are you looking for son?” he asked
“B-Company Sir”
“B-Company? Shit you’re about to miss your flight! Quick come with me.” We ran across the hanger bays and by helicopters spinning up.
“There it is.” He said as he pointed to a Chinook loading up in the middle of a supply field.
“Thank you!” I said, shouting above the noise of the airfield.
“Hey” as he yanked on my pack “May God be with you. You’re going to need it!”
As I got to the back of the bird the tail gunner stopped me.
“Where the hell are you going?” shouting over the sound of the engines starting to awake.
“B-Company!”
“Awe ok! Go sit over there by the others.” He pointed to a bunch of guys sitting on the side of the bird. I went and sat down next to a big guy.
“First day?” he asked as I put my ruck down and sat in the net seat.
“Ya just got in country.” I looked at his boots and pants. “I guess your not?”
“Naw just going back out. Boris Johnson” Extending his hand.
“Charley Smith. Are y’all B-Company?” I asked
“Ha hell no, do we look like a bunch of crazy’s to you? Naw We’re E-Company. Why you B?
“Ya I am.”
“Well good luck to you! And may God be with you.”
“Why is every body telling me that? What’s wrong with B?” I asked
“Well B-Company… it’s… well shit most guys don’t... umm aww man you’ll be fine.”
“Their special forces. They do the things nobody else wants to do or can do. They basically do the dirty work for the army.”
There wasn’t much chatting, well from me any ways. After about 30 minutes of flight we touched down I stood up to get out. E-Company was exiting with the canvas-covered pallets of supplies.
Boris lifted his heavy pack on to his shoulders with a grunt and looked at me.
“Well good luck brother.” He said and extending his hand for a handshake.
“Hey you too man.” I said shaking his hand. “Maybe one day we’ll met again.” I said.
He nodded and turned to walk down the ramp. At that moment the hilltop erupted into a firefight. Plums of dirt were popping up by the dozens at the end of the ramp. Every body caught in the open were diving for cover. It sounded like there were firecracker exploding on the side of the helicopter the all of a sudden the engines were screaming louder then ever before and I was being pushed hard into my seat. The door gunners 50 cal. roared to life, adding to the all ready defining environment. The ground looked further and further away by the second. The door gunner kept laying down a barrage of bullets until the hill could no longer be seen.
When he stopped the barrel of the gun was smoking. He had a big smile on his face.
“How bout that for some fun?” He said.
“Thrilling.” I said sarcastically. Not what I would consider fun. I think he could sense my fear.
“You ever shoot one of these?” he said gesturing to the thing they call the “Ma Deuce”.
“Ya once or twice in training.”
“O well you still want to shoot it?”
“How could I refuse?” I said with a big smile. I walked over to the gun and clipped my umbilical cord to the lifeline. That’s what they call the harnesses you wear to keep you from falling out.
“All right so what you want to do is line the…” that’s all he could get out before I let the lead fly. The handles and the butterfly trigger felt so good in my hands. I sprayed everything that I thought might need a few couple more holes in it. When I got a bullet that was bad the gunner tried to reach to pull the bolt back but I beat him to it and racked it back as hard as I could, then went back to rocking it. Finally the ammo box was empty.
“I’ve never seen anybody else handle her like you just did.” He said with an amazed look on his face.
“Thanks, I’m a heavy weapons expert.” I said.
“Nice.” He said with a look of pleasure on his face.
That made me feel a lot better and made the rest of the 30