Sanpans Coming In

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by Doc Dave Pfeifer

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I t was a nite insertion,choppers brought us in one after another, putting us down just at the edge of a tree line.

We debarked and headed into the woods at sundown, then formed our perimeter of defense.The cp, sgts,& lt, & me, gathered in the center. We were told intell from battalion said san pans were coming in at nite bringing arms and ammo to charlie.

We dropped our heavies at the base of those trees and took what we thought we would need. Extra ammo, smokes ,flares and grenades.I pacvked my lite first aid bag.We left indian style following each other in the dark.

After some time going thru the woods ,we broke out into rows of rice paddies.As we followed each other accross the tops of the rice paddies they kept breaking down from the numbers and the weight of us.Everyother step would take you breaking down the side of the rows and into the cold water of the paddies.On and on we ran in the dark.Hearing a noise I looked up to see a cobra chopper pull up and look us over in the darkness on the run.I prayed he recognized us as friendlies, as he looked really like death looking down on us.Finnally he moved on passing over us about 100 feet above.Whew.

After what seemed like forever running we broke out to the water edge of the china sea.We followed a dike and lined up all along it in single file.Some of us were ankle deep in water.A flare ship went back an forth dropping flares lighting up the dark for us.Hours went by nothing but darkness wet and cold.Shivering there on that dike all nite was not a lot of fun and all the guys started grumbling.

At day break we could see better and finnaly one san pan came floating along.It looked like and old man and old lady in the dugout.Suddenly Apache the battalion commander appeared in a loatch helicopter. leaning out of the window they passed over the san pan right in front of us.

Onthe second pass, the Major leaned out the side of the chopper with his m-16 and fired up the san pan. He fired at least three clips into it at point blank, right in front of us.

Then he just flew away.All of us just looked at each other and someone said " what the fuck was that all about''?

LT, yelled we aregoing in, and we all ran off that berm, wondering just what had happened. we made it back to our rucks and crashed for a couple hours before choppers picked us up to take us someplace else to search and destroy.

Doc Dave
Medic, Vietnam