Saturday, February 6, 2016

Phan Thiet

At one point HQ set up at an airstrip near Phan Thiet. It wasn't a large strip and was made of steel planks laid down across the sand in strips to keep aircraft wheels from bogging down .There was a n established gate that we manned as well as a perimeter we guarded.Although there were a couple of incidents that don't bear repeating the next one scared us all because it showed us how vulnerable we were to attack. I believe it was near or fairly soon after dusk when we were attacked by mortars. Although there were lots of foxholes and sandbags they were of absolutely no use during a mortar encounter. Nobody knew where to go for protection and we were all running everywhere. It might have looked comical but I saw no humor at the time. We were really lucky because only a couple of mortars were launched towards us. Nobody was woundedbut we stayed shook up for a long time.