Over the Top

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by Harvey Sullivan

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"OK men. On the count of three we'll go over the top."

Now you might ask, how did an Old Timer like me, wind up in a scene from a WWI movie? area of dense vegetation. We had been patrolling the area around last nights NDP when we spotted the gooks. After we had called in an air strike, HE & napalm, we moved back in to get a better look. We found the land was terraced. Each terrace was about 5 feet high & 30 meters deep. Most of the jungle had been burned off by the strike & the area was still smoldering. There was a well-constructed bunker built into the 2nd terrace with its ominous gun slot facing us.

Here I should tell you that due to heavy losses the patrol was mostly made up of Cherries. This included the Lt who had been with the company for all of two days.

The Lt had us form up, on line, at the base of the 1st terrace directly in front of the bunker. I figured we were going to put a lot of lead into the bunker & see what happened. That's why, when the Lt said, "OK men. On the count of 3 we'll go over the top & move, on line, to the bunker," my mind screamed "Are you fuckin' insane??" But the only sound that came out of my mouth was an almost inaudible moan. The Lt started counting, one, two, three... Not even the Lt moved! He looked at me and I looked at the right, in unison. They were all looking at me. (Remember me? The Old Timer?)

I turned to the Lt & told him, The men would really like to shoot at the bunker for awhile first, Sir. The Lt advised me that Captain Roy had given orders not to fire unless we had confirmed contact. It took a minute of fast-talking to convince the Lt I could put an M-79 round into the gun slot from our position.

After my 2nd miss, with the borrowed 79, the Lt started counting again. "One, two,..."

"Excuse me, Sir. Have you ever heard the term...flanking movement?" I started explaining the concept to him. "You know, let's kinda sneak around the side."

I suddenly noticed he was not paying attention to me but was looking over my shoulder with a stupid look of puzzlement on his face. I turned to discover one of the cherries was going over the top! He climbed up & slowly began walking towards the bunker.

I could not believe what this idiot was doing!! He was making me LOOK BAD!!! He forced me to go over the top after him, the fuckin' idiot! I had to run to catch up to this idiot! Just as I did, someone yelled from behind that there was a spider hole to my right. I must have missed it because I was too busy telling the idiot what I was going to do to him if I lived long enough!! I hit the ground & rolled a grenade into the hole on top of the already dead gook that was hiding in it & killed him again! My ears were still ringing when I heard the weapons fire. I looked up in the hopes that the gooks had shot the idiot! No such luck. I really hate that idiot!

The idiot was now standing 10 feet in front of the bunker firing his M-16, on semi-automatic, into the gun slot! Now I had to run again! I finally flattened myself out to the right of the gun slot & told the idiot to do the same to the left. We both threw grenades into the gun slot.

I got credit for killing the already dead gook in the spider hole but had to share credit, for killing the 2 already dead gooks in the bunker, with the idiot.


Tam Ky Hill 376 - June 11th 1969

End

Sully
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