"DUCK!"  You make a good target

Pompous fools rarely survive combat

{Background: Top US Government officials & the military brass hotly denied
  that Russian helicopters were fighting in Vietnam...but we knew better!}

The way I remember it all starting was with the Q4 radar we had at the "Oasis" telling me that they had a strange target on the border that would pop up and down and go back and forth across the border.  I fired several fire missions using artillery at the Oasis, back in late Dec. or Jan. and filed a report with DivArty.  The next thing I knew some Major from Washington D.C. (very hush-hush), showed up at LZ Oasis; he was all spit and polish.  He "pooh-poohed" our claims of Russian helicopters and I took him out to an OP on a mountaintop near the Cambodian border and Plei Me.   It was raining and I was kinda grungy-looking as compared to this Major.  We were in the slit trench with a periscope and I told him to use it and look over at Cambodia about a klick away.  He laughed at me sarcastically, saying there is no danger.  I then explained (as I crouched to light a cigarette) that he should get his head down as Charlie was probably looking at him from his OP across the way and taking aim at his shiny helmet.  He refused to use the scope and stuck his head up over the parapet.  There was about 6 inches of water and mud in the trench and over the duck boards.  Zing-splat! Incoming bullet. The round zipped past his head and slapped into the mud behind him. The next thing I knew I was looking down at him at the bottom of the trench.  There he was with mud, head to foot, and all over his shiny spit-shined boots, and helmet.  I finished lighting my cigarette with a smile on my face, as I did not have to say another word.  He didn’t say much after that.  Boy, I bet he really missed that overstuffed leather chair back in Washington, D.C.

The next thing I knew we got the Hawk missile battery sent to us at the Oasis from the coast, but no missiles!  I guess he still didn’t believe….

Lt Mike Kurtgis

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