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