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backed out of the door—the VC saw an opportunity and kicked the broken door shut—leaving my Marine on the outside—and me and the Hamlet Chief on the inside. I whipped around when I heard the door slam—by then the Hamlet chief pulled his hands from behind his head revealing he had a 9mm pistol which he proceeded to aim and fire at me! He missed as I drew my .45 and fired back— and missed—we were engaged in a game of ‘dodge ball’ with bullets—I moved and fired and he moved and fired —I emptied one magazine and replaced it with another—the VC continued firing as did I —we both missed—he ran out of ammo and ran for a back door and into the arms of members of my platoon which had heard the gunfire and taken refuge behind whatever they could find until the VC ran outside—they restrained him along with the other three—We found documents that later proved to be valuable intelligence info.
The ‘gunfight at the ok corral’ was not pretty—I had emptied two magazines at my enemy in a room sized space—and missed! I had qualified as ‘sharpshooter’ with the pistol!! Fortunately, my enemy had missed also. It’s difficult to explain what it’s like to try to steady your aim while moving around and your opponent is doing the same—call it luck or misfortune—at least I didn’t get hit. The Marines outside of the hut took cover until the gunfire subsided—there was really nothing they could do but let us ‘fight it out’!
Meanwhile the other platoons of E Co. were searching the village and finding VC combatants asleep as we had done with the VC Hamlet Chief—the raid produced
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