(Spring 1970 til ...)

NVA MOVING AT NIGHT

It was in the spring of 1970. We had abandoned FSB Granite in the night. The next morning we got a new CO. The night before someone told me we were getting Zippo as our new CO. As fate would have it we did. There had been a lot of activity in our AO. We would all be grateful that Zippo was there. One of the first things we learned to do was to dig in. Zippo insisted on it. Well, this was our lucky night. We found an NDP site just of the trail. I guess Sgt. Lockett thought it was a good place to spend the night. We liked it because there was no digging involved. It was on that long trail where there were two LZs. One about a third of the way up and another about two-thirds of the way up. It was getting late, so we were settling in. Considering everything, it was a pretty nice evening. It was a funny time in Charlie Co. the 1st and 2nd platoons were humping together. Even with that we had 20 men. Including 2 LT's.

Not long after dark someone got my attention. We had movement on the trail. I pushed the safety forward on my 79. Got into a good position. We were being told to hold our fire! Be cool was the word. Here they were. Flash lights shinning and a lot of conversation. And they just kept coming. Now I knew why we were told to hold our fire. It was at least an entire company of NVA moving at night. I put my finger on the trigger guard just to make sure. I had never seen anything like this. I was afraid that one of us would get too nervous and start shooting. I guess we shouldn't have been, or maybe it was just me, but we sure were nervous. Right about then, something, a rat or what ever decided to test me. It ran right across me digging its' nails in. That took me to another level. Not long after that, they were gone and we were asking each other what they were thinking. No one blew it and we were all glad of that. It was one of those strange things that happens once in a while. One that I still remember.

Not long ago I asked Zippo if he remember that. He did. I asked him why we didn't call in artillery on them after they passed us. He said, "You know that we didn't believe in letting anyone get away." I said, "Yes sir." Apparently they were some ARVNs in the area. Zippo found out later that they were about 8 clicks away.

Dan "Crazy" Pierce