I and the others waited for a ride to come and pick us up.
It wasn't a long wait, but I never could take my eyes off
those prisoners. They didn't show any resistance and it was hard
to visualized these tiny people dressed in rags as a powerful
enemy. Maybe that was because they had no weapons. Yes, I'm sure
that's what it was.
I felt like a switch went off somewhere in my head at that very
moment though. The people I would meet and the places I would see
from this point on would be forever etched in my soul and heart... or
completely blocked out... one or the other.
A little toothless dude who happened to be the A 1/501 company
clerk drove up in a borrowed jeep pickup with wood plank seats
in the back. We piled on to the benches and proceeded to
the only main road in the I Corps, Highway 1, and turned right
heading south to LZ Sally. The ride took no more than a half
hour or so. None of us in that truck knew each other yet, so
there was little or no conversation.
The land around Sally was generally flat and sandy although there
were mountains within a few miles to the west. The yellowish
color of the sandy dirt coated everything in sight because of a
constant cloud of dust generated by helicopters and trucks. The
vegetation consisted of scrub growth in clumps. I guess it
wasn't a good area for farming, because every other flat place
around there had a rice paddy on it.
We turned right again onto the quarter mile dirt driveway of
Sally's main entrance. No big deal here, it just looked like
a small city made of tents and semi-permanent buildings. There
was an MP gate that you could just drive right through if the
MP on duty recognized you or your vehicle.
Our driver dropped us off in front of one small building with a tin roof and a wood
frame reinforced with sandbags on all sides. It was the first
building in a row of four or five just like it. Each building had it's
own sign up over the doorway. The sign on the building we now
stood before read: A Company, 1st of the 501st Infantry. A little
Hawaiian first sergeant came out to "greet" us. It wasn't such a
cordial greeting. It was more like a cop reading you your rights.
"Gentleman...you are now the property of A Company, First of the
Five-0-first infantry."
Names and serial numbers were confirmed, and then we were led to
another similar building right behind the first one where we were
to stash our whatever equipment we had carried with us and "get to
work!" This building looked almost comfortable. There were nice
cots lined up against the walls with mosquito netting draped
over them and the personal belongings of the guys who "owned"
them stashed neatly around their "personal areas." It was
stifling hot, but I could imagine how comfortable the beds would
be at night. So much for my imagination though, I would never
sleep on one of those cots nor anything similar. Only REMFs get
to live like that. We would pull details this afternoon, and we
would pull bunker guard at night. And tomorrow we would leave for
the field. It was that simple.
The details we pulled that afternoon consisted of filling empty
sandbags with... sand. When we pulled bunker guard they issued
us whatever weapons were required from the company armory which
was nothing more than a big corrugated steel box designed for
cargo on ships at sea. The gas masks and flack jackets we had
each brought with us to Sally were also to be used on bunker
guard, but after we turned them in the next morning we would
never see them again. We could have kept them if we wanted to,
but someone explained how much everything else we would have to
carry weighed, and since the gas mask and flack jacket weighed
about eight pounds and were "optional" we used grunt logic...
and left them at Sally.
We had a fairly decent hot meal at the mess hall before bunker
guard started, and would also have a nice hot breakfast in the
morning when guard was over. There was even a shower at Sally. It
was a small building of plywood and screen with shower heads for
about eight or ten men. The water that fed the showers was on the roof
in a couple of large open air rubber bladders. It was heated by
the sun (however in later months they would add portable gas water
heaters.) In the evenings the shower was always crowded with those who lived and
worked at Sally. I needed a shower most desperately, and decided
I would take one in the morning after spending the night in the
dirty-ass bunker. The shower was on a schedule however. When I
finally got my chance... it was closed.
After breakfast we went back to filling sand bags for about a half
an hour and then were called to a small formation in front of the
building where we had been dropped off. I now knew this building
to be A Company Headquarters. It seemed awfully small to be
called something like that. No where around did I see room for an
entire company to sleep at night. Presently, I was made to
understand that the company itself never came in to LZ Sally.
They stayed out in the field.
Hmmf!... just as I was starting to accept this dump. I hated the
bunker guard duty where one could only sleep for a couple of
hours between "shifts," and shitty job of filling sandbags
didn't even require that you have a brain. And it NEVER
took place in the shade. However, it looked to me like those
fortunate enough to live and have jobs at Sally never had to
do that kind of work anyway. Those jobs seemed to be reserved
for grunts in transit... like me. (O.K. This is not
actually true. Those with rear jobs did always have the risk
of being selected for bunker guard on any given night...
if there were no grunts available.)
At the formation, the First Sergeant had the "Armorer" issue us
all the gear and weaponry we would need at our new assignment in
the field where the company was working. A shining moment.
Finally besides canteens and a poncho liner...I received my own
personal M-16 fully automatic gas operated recoilless bullet
shooter. It wasn't so much that I wanted it, but I'd been in a
war zone for over a week with no bullets for Chrisake! If they
weren't going to change their mind and send me back home I
figured at least I ought to have a weapon. As far as ammunition
though, we only got maybe a hundred rounds in a bandoleer
(useless until loaded into magazines) and about seven empty
magazines. "Top" (First Sergeant) told us we would get "plenty
more" when we hooked up with the company. Oh well, first mission,
load the magazines.
I was much concerned about a few things I hadn't learned yet.
Where was the enemy? Compared to that, where was the company?
How ready should I be to start shooting when I get there? And
also dammit, who of all these Asians I see around me is
supposed to be the bad guys?
There was one answer to all these questions. "Don't worry about
it yet. You're taking a chopper to LZ Sandy and you won't join
the company until tomorrow." He assigned us to different platoons
but as I remember, those assignments didn't stick. I (for instance)
may have been slated for the first platoon but ended up in the
mighty third.
Anyway, we were then allowed to hit the mess hall and enjoy a last cup of
real coffee while we waited for the helicopter that would take
us to LZ Sandy. In all my training, I'd never gotten to ride in
a helicopter. I didn't know about the other guys with me, but
personally I was really looking forward to it. I would have this
same feeling many times in the year to come. It was strange. I
seldom would care where the "huey" was going or worry (like I
should) about what I would see at the other end when the
Huey touched down. I just purely wanted that great ride in the sky.
Soon, one of the guys who's job it was to unload choppers at Sally
came to the mess hall and told us our pumpkin had arrived. We
grabbed our clumsy new equipment and headed to (the main part
of any LZ...) the chopper pad. Our Huey was idling on the pad. It
had no doors. Co-o-o-ol! We threw our new rucksaks in and climbed
aboard to find a place to sit on the stainless steel floor. In a
few seconds we were (excuse the pun) "airborne." My oh my what a
feeling. All of a sudden the temperature and breeze factors
reached perfect. Sweat was evaporating. The view became beautiful.
LZ Sally got smaller and smaller as we headed East toward the coast
and gained altitude. Anyone who knew me before that moment knew
someone I used to be. The angry young man was now armed and very
dangerous. ("Be all that you can be...")
Orr