Qui Nhon: The Play Begins

The following passages are excerpted from the chapter.

". . .We learned a few things about combat while we watched over the Army folks relaxing down on the beach. The boredom of waiting through the heat and humidity of a day in the Vietnam sun. The nameless fears generated by strange night sounds, or sometimes by no sounds at all. And we learned that you could die easily, and for no useful purpose.

A few days had gone by in our play war, and all we had done was dig by-the-book foxholes, run a few patrols and drink a little Tigre Biere. Several of the young troops had come in here with a full head of steam, real-life precursors, I suppose, to Rambo. For some reason I no longer appreciate, they were looking forward to fighting the Viet Cong. (Maybe I did, too. Every young marine feels invincible.) And when nobody showed up for the party, they were sorely disappointed. One such trooper was an American Indian, a well-liked young man whom I only knew of, but never knew. Several days had gone by with no contact with any of the enemy. The day patrols found nothing; the night patrols found nothing. No one seemed interested in us; no one wished to test our defenses, to infiltrate our perimeter.

Since the Viet Cong did not come to him, the Indian evidently decided to find a few for himself. So one night he stole away from our position, through the perimeter, and out somewhere into the surrounding countryside. No one knew that he had gone out on his one-man patrol; at least I never heard of anyone who would admit that. We didn't know when he left, where he went, or if he had made any contact. I don't believe that we heard any rifle fire or any other sound of combat out in front of us that night. The general feeling, though, was that if he had made contact with the enemy, he probably would have preferred to use a knife anyway.

We do know that he made at least one serious mistake that night. He tried to return through the perimeter without being detected. He was not successful, and his friends took his life."