Gary Stoltz

Memories that cross my mind most days...

Please note: the following submission contains explicit language.

This is a attempt to write down some of the events of my time in Vietnam from Dec. 1968 - Aug. 1969. And seem to cross my mind everyday.

Got assigned to Charlie company 6th 31st 9th division in the Mekong Delta down My Tho. My first time in the bush we were walking along and we got opened up on from a small village area and we got down behind patty dikes for cover, then the commander said lets get on line and charge, I couldn't believe we were doing this and stayed down and watched for a few more seconds and got up and joined in and the shooting, pretty soon the shooting stopped and we just started walking again, like nothing had happened.

I thought this is going to be a long year.

Next time out there was a gook that was running and the guys in front of me opened up and shot the guy wounding him, the sergeant was on the radio talking to the commander and I could hear him saying that the guy had a id on him, the commander asked if he was still alive, and the sergeant shot him and said no, so we just moved out. I couldn't believe these guys were so hard. just before this we were walking by a hooch and a Papa San was sitting out front with a leg that looked like a elephant I walked over and gave him a cigarette and all the guys got mad at me for giving it to him, I couldn't believe these guys were so hard.

About a week or so later we were crossing the river and we got some sand pans and were taking turns crossing in them, I had sent my machine gun across and me and another guy we called Fat Albert were waiting to cross and the kid on the other side helping unload the sand pans was in the water and I heard one shot and the kid was hit right in the head and killing instantly Fat Albert started going crazy on me with fear and saying this was a white mans war and his mother told him not to come. I told him to shut up and get out so we could take cover. It was just the one shot and that was it. So I figure it was really going to be a long year and Id be real lucky to get out of this alive.

I remember being woken up for my turn for guard, we would be in 3 man groups so every 2 hours it was my turn and they’ed shake me to wake me up and Id come up swinging so scared someone was trying to kill me. so really I would hardly ever sleep when out in the bush just to scared, after a while seeing guys wounded and killed I remembered something a teacher in school had said about Franklin D. Roosevelt telling the people during the Great Depression that the only thing you have to fear is fear itself and it helped me to realize there was no place to hide and if you were going to die your time was up and there was nothing you could do about it.

It went on like that, lots of eagle flights they called them they'd take us out on helicopters drop us off we’d walk around, they come pick us up and drop us off somewhere else, sometimes we’d get shot at most of the time just going and coming looking for Charley.

In February around Tet for the Vietnamese new year we went with a bunch of APC army personnel carriers to a area called Tan An, the first night we set up in a circle and I was assigned to go out in a forward post for guard, there were 3 of us and it was a full moon one of the guys stood up to piss on his guard and the gooks open up with RPG’s they shot one that landed 10 feet in front of me and then one 10 feet behind me and then one hit the patty dike we were hiding behind and shit was flying everywhere, I called for help on the radio and there commander said to get up and charge doing fire and maneuver I said the hell with that they think were dead and to put some mortars out there so they did and that was it for the night.

The next night I got to stay back and we were sitting in our fox hole listening to the radio music and we got mortared shit flying everywhere my buddy Sammy White got shrapnel right next to me and was hurt bad, I helped him and they called for choppers and I helped carry him to the chopper and I never saw him again, he was hit bad enough they sent him home, we called it a million dollar wound.

The next night there were some drums pounding, like over in Africa or something and it stopped and the gooks started coming at us bullets flying everywhere, I jumped onto the APC and started shooting with the 50 cal. my knees were shaking and I’ve never been so scared, I’m seeing my bullets him them and it was like they just kept coming, then the bullet were all over me because I was shooting the 50 so I got scared and jumped inside the APC grabbed my M16 jumped in a foxhole and kept shooting. hitting guys with my tracer rounds and they wouldn't drop they must of been all doped up on something the fire fight lasted what seemed like forever but them it stopped and we were told to go pick up the body’s so we started carrying them back and pilling them up there was one that was still alive and sitting up with his rifle and I couldn't tell if he had a grenade or something there was me and 2 others guys we looked at each other what should we do I said lets open up, you just don't know the adrenaline was flowing so we did and started to drag him back and the leg I was pulling came off and I just carried the leg back and threw it in the pile with the rest of the body’s we killed 31 gooks that night and we didn't lose a guy.

In the morning when it was light we started taking pictures one guy had a polaroid and I had a picture of me holding up one of the gooks head like a deer hunting trophy I sent it back to my brother at home to show him what a great job we were doing in Vietnam (crazy) then the big guys started flying in the generals and stuff with reporters and cameras to see the body’s we’d pilled up it was hot and they were starting to smell I can still smell it rotting flesh they were bubbling up and swelling I think we left them like that for days they wanted to show the people what happen when you mess with the Americans….well this was my baptism into the war and it changed me for ever I still see the whole thing 46 years later almost everyday. It was only February and I’d only been here about 2 months going to be a long year.

Another day while walking we got sniped at from one side of the river so the captain wanted to cross over and asked if anyone could swim good enough to cross and the rest would wait for a sand pan so I said I could and jumped in and swam across, got there and everyone one on the other side was yelling that O’brain had gone down and didn't come up. I couldn't see him, he was gone. I jumped back in to find him and Sergeant Fish jumped in too but had his ammo-vest on and was drowning so I grabbed him and was getting him to shore and my foot kicked O’Brian who had been down a long time now, got Fish to shore and dove back in where I thought I’d felt O’Brian and grabbed him, got him to shore, he was blue, gave him CPR and he started to breath again, they dusted him off. IT WAS A LONG YEAR.