Colco Beach JP 4 Pumping Station
by Pete Cordova
I
had been in country not more than 3-4 months. We had been out in the
field but had gone back to Colco (sp) beach area to guard a JP 4 pumping
station, as I recall. We were set up in a church that sat next to the
river. During the day all the locals hung around and were willing to get
anything the troops might want/need to make their short stay in the rear
as pleasant as possible. One particular day a motor bike with two men on
it drove by. The person on the back was carrying a large mirror or glass
plane. One of the troops in our group had a sling shot and with amazing
accuracy he shattered the mirror as they drove by. They stopped the
bike--but only for a moment, and then left. Everyone laughed and forgot
about it. That night I had guard duty early. Two guys and myself stayed
up together. Shortly after getting off guard duty, I laid on a cot
inside the church. The platoon sgt was Sgt. Ellis. As I laid down, I
immediately noticed that the dogs that had been barking had all of a
sudden stopped. I mentioned to Sgt. Ellis if he had heard that? He had
awaken and said that he had. Just then, all hell broke loose. We got
hit with AK 47 fire and RPG's. As I lay on the floor of the church you
could see the tracers from their weapons going thru the broken out
windows of the church. They stayed on us for at least 5-10 minutes (It
seemed much longer). Eventually we, with gunship support, got them off
us. My theory has always been that it was the local VC responsible, and
the guys on the motor bike were our boys. No one was wounded, scared the
shit out of everyone--but we probably deserved it.
Pete Cordova, Salida,
CO
A/1/501 Class of '68-'69