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expectations and those of the Col. . I had one staff clerk who was assigned to help with the reports, filing of documents , etc. My main mission was to gather intelligence on the enemy and disseminate that intelligence to the Col. —his staff and the company commanders. My initial days were spent just trying to find my way around our HQ area—we were housed in a command tent with sandbags for walls and orders to exit quickly when we came under mortar attacks—there were huge foxholes dug outside the HQ area—we were to run to those holes and hunker down when we were under attack and of course be prepared to fight if the base perimeter was breached. Indeed a few days later we had such an attack— The VC were popping 81mm mortars in on us during broad daylight—sure enough everyone in the CP took off for one of the foxholes—the one’s nearest the CP filled up in a hurry—I took off for one in the distance that was unoccupied —jumped in and pulled my flak jacket around me and hunkered down with my helmet—a few seconds later Lt. Brian Fagan —another staff officer —came tumbling down in the hole—the mortars were raining down on the CP area. This is a very uncomfortable feeling—there’s nothing you can do but wait it out and pray that one those missiles don’t come down on top of you because that would be it! Fagan and I tried to keep our mind’s off of the situation by making jokes, talking about home—anything to distract us from the attack. We listened for gunfire which would signal a ground attack but heard none. The mortars stopped —we climbed out of our hole and heard a lot of activity approximately 20/30 yards away—one of our Marines had hidden beneath a ‘mighty mite’ ( small jeep)
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