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The Company staff did a good job of coordinating the logistics to support our operations. The days passed with little fanfare—the VC were elusive and not very active. The nights were long and often shattered with a Marine firing rounds at some of the ‘ghosts’ that tended to form when staring into the pitch black night —they were still getting used to the idea of being in a combat zone and guerrilla warfare. We honestly didn’t know if we were being ‘probed’ or not most of the time. Then less than three weeks after landing at Qui Nhon came the worst night of my time in the Marine Corps. We had settled in for the night—a half moon was providing plenty of light over the hills and the valley below. We had , as usual been running patrols all day and had had our evening meal and were settled info another long night with 50% security—one Marine awake and one Marine at rest for four hour cycles during the night. The entire perimeter was ready if the VC decided to pay us a visit.
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