Skip to main content

The Helmet


The picture is me on the deck of the USS Okinawa, an LPH (Landing Platform Helicopter) probably around September of 1967. I still had an M-14 rifle, which I consider to be the best combat rifle ever made. I had traded my M-16 to a sergeant who didn't want to carry the weight. They took the M-14 away from me not long after this picture and made me get an M-16. I had three different M-16 rifles in Vietnam and they all jammed every third round and would only work with seventeen rounds in the magazine instead of twenty. The defects in those early versions were paid for with American lives.
The picture also shows my second helmet. My first helmet had contained a morbid surprise. I had arrived in Danang from Okinawa aboard a C-130. I was assigned to the 1st Battalion 3rd Marine Regiment. The battalion rear was on Hill 327, but they were getting ready to go on float aboard the LPH. From Hill 327, we could see for what seemed like miles of super-heated ground in a hazy and humid mist. My skin felt like it had been dipped in motor oil. Everything was covered in a bronze colored dust. I felt like I had been dropped into some prehistoric world like the one in Conan the Barbarian stories. I was a stranger in a strange land. I couldn't imagine making it through a year in this place. Since everything in the military is hurry up and wait, they lined us up to get our 782 gear: helmet, pack, cartridge belt, etc. When it was my turn, the supply guy handed me a helmet. It had a small hole in one side and a large blowout hole in the other.
I told the supply guy that my helmet had a bullet hole in it. "That's good luck," the guy said. "it won't get hit again."
I walked over and sat next to another new guy. When I turned the helmet over to adjust the liner, it was a cracked mess of clotted blood mixed with red tinted beige scrambled egg brains. "Jesus," the guy next to me said. I felt slimy all over. I had been hit in the head with rocks as a kid, but I couldn't imagine the instant shock of a high velocity bullet to the skull. Holding the helmet like a hot soup bowl, I walked back to the front of the line and showed it to the supply man.
"This is full of brains and I can't wear it."
"Sorry about that," he said, and tossed it over his shoulder into a pile of gear I hadn't noticed before. The pile contained bloody 782 gear: packs, helmets, and even one bloodstained boot. I kept wondering if there was a foot inside. The supply man saw me looking at the pile as he handed me another helmet. "You'll get used to it," he said. "It happens all the time."
I never did get used to it. I'm glad I didn't put the helmet on before looking inside. Because I'm a writer, people often ask me if that little incident is fiction. No. It actually happened. The supply man didn't bother to check the gear. I never knew who that Marine was, but he's been with me ever since...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vietnam: The Liberty Bridge

(This entry has had a lot of comments, and I'm glad it can help bring Nam vets together or to help find each other. If you have a comment, please attach your name to the comment or from this point forward it won't be published. I've received many comments that are phony and obviously made up, submitted by anonymous submission. I do screen all comments. Click the photo to enlarge. Semper Fi.) This is the Liberty Bridge (click to make larger) in Quang Nam Province in Vietnam during July of 1968. Of the 14,000 Marines killed in Vietnam, 10,000 were killed in Quang Nam Province. (Figures in comment section show a little under 7000 KIA in Quang Nam.) This was late in my tour on July 2. The bridge had been blown once again by the enemy to isolate the Marine base at An Hoa. I was a 50 caliber machine gunner on a convoy to resupply the An Hoa Firebase. I called this the River Styx because it had a ferry boat. Once you crossed the river you entered a nightmare hell on earth cal
249 comments
Read more

The Jesus Moth

Photo taken through a window screen. I had just gone over the first print copy of The Bad Season on July 22, 2006. I walked over to the window and saw this moth on my outside air conditioner unit. It was the most bizarre thing I had seen in a long time. I retrieved my digital camera and snapped a picture through the glass and the window screen before going outside in a failed to attempt to capture the moth. I contacted a moth expert. He told me what kind of moth it was, but added that he had never seen one with a cross on its back like this one. I call it the Jesus Moth, the Crusader Moth, or maybe the Infidel Moth. The syndicates wanted me to give it to them for free. They said they don't take pics from non-employees because "we would actually have to pay you for it."   Hmm, what a novel concept, getting paid for something. I offered to swap for a syndicated story about my book. They refused. So I copyrighted the entire pic (the one below is a fragment from that p
28 comments
Read more

The Old Corps: Marine Corps Boot Camp 1966

BLT 1/3 USMC 1967 Vietnam Boot Camp Hell I recently saw a video of what I assume was the current Marine Corps Boot Camp. It mentioned recruits reporting any abuse right away and the DI was trying to be tough (and he did sound tough to an extent), but underneath it all you could tell the old Corps was gone in the civilian desire (political desire by people who never served) to make things easier and less traumatic for the boots. They never mentioned abuse to us in 1966 because we were abused 24/7. I'm an old Corps Hollywood Marine (that's an inside Marine joke about the difference between boot camp in Parris Island or San Diego.) The boots in Parris Island claimed they had it rougher because they had swamps. The Hollywood Marines had mountains. I would rather walk in water than climb mountains so I disagree. I entered the Marine Corps on August 10, 1966. Marines had been in Vietnam for over a year. All of us would probably go to Nam. For some of us it woul
Post a Comment
Read more