Secret Weapon
by Richard "Berk" Bergquist
I don't recall which ville it was we were strolling through on
this particular day...but it was one of our regular villages....it was midday and
hot....and in this ville Charlie was always around to try and take a few of us
out....so, I remember we were paying particular attention to keeping our separation as
we walked along the trail...I was humping the 60 at sling position ...ready for
action. A blue that ran the distance of the ville was to our left. Charlie opened
fire on us from across the water...several ak's were yakking and before I could figure
out if it was safe to crawl closer and try to fix a target I heard this god awful
scream...then I saw one of the guys to my front run right at the enemy fire, while the
fire-fight was in full blast....screaming bloody murder with no weapon in his hand and
tearing at his jungle shirt, he jumped right into the water. Instantly the ak's
stopped. We were all shocked at this maniac behavior of one of our guys....man this
guy was really pissed off I thought....he appeared to want to take the VC on all by
himself.
We later learned that this grunt took cover right in a bush full of
fire-ants...this explained instantly his moment of valor! I don't recall the grunts
name.......but I remember we always encouraged this guy to simply scream and run at
the enemy the next time we were ambushed....he could be our secret weapon...he failed
to see the humor...of course... but it is a story I love to tell the kids. Bye the
way, if your reading this and you were that grunt, let us know...that was really a
great move!
Richard "Berk" Bergquist