My body certainly wasn’t ready for the blast of heat that rammed through the door as it was thrown open. We landed at Tan Son Nhut Air Base, in Saigon, during nautical twilight, around five-thirty.
As all sane men do, I would come to fear it. Soon, however, I would witness artillery fire up close and personal. I was too ignorant to grasp the significance of what I was seeing.
Those words had no effect on me as I watched from my lofty perch. Occasionally the field of black was interrupted by tiny orange flashes of light. I couldn’t see anything, but I continued searching the ground, looking for a sign. I stared out the window at the dark earth thousands of feet below us. Our plane reached the coast of Vietnam early in the morning. I wasn’t issued a weapon when I boarded the plane, so how could I be going to a place where I was expected to shoot people? It still hadn’t hit me that I was on my way to a war zone. The whole time I kept thinking that soon an announcement would come over the speakers stating that this was just a test to see how I would respond to pressure. I played cards and shot the breeze with those around me who weren’t trying to sleep. I can’t sleep on planes, so I stayed awake the entire flight.
It was a long trip from the land of freedom. I should’ve been out messing around with my buddies or chasing chicks. I can’t recall the date, but I know it was a Saturday because I kept thinking, man, what a fucked-up way to start a weekend.
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