Chapter 8

I wanted to describe the event of the ammo dump explosion in Danang in this part of the narrative. I have tried to make this kind of chronological and logical within a time frame of December 1967 and November of 1969. It was a period of some 24 months, but it was the period of the heaviest fighting in the Republic of South Vietnam. In fact, I was surprised that 6 of the 9 battle stars awarded for service in Vietnam were awarded during this period. Always a numbers guy, it was easy to determine two/thirds of the combat activity took place during one/sixth of the total engagement period. When I checked the casualty figures, the same ratio stood up. I believe this occurred because the North Vietnamese Communist Party decided to change strategy and accelerate their patient war of attrition. In a way, they probably did us a favor because there was no will to win in the higher echelons of government.

I don’t remember the exact date of the Danang ammo dump explosion, but if memory serves me correctly, it was in the latter part of April, 1969. I also remember it happened on a Sunday morning. It was one of those few Sunday mornings that I was actually out and about. Sundays were very typical sleep-in morning’s in-country.

I was a little nervous that morning because I was wandering around in an area not overly familiar to me and I was by myself. I had spent the night debauching and drinking with very funny Warrant Officer and 2 Korean Officers whose capacity for drink was astounding. I cannot remember any of their names. I was always very bad about things like that. I decided I needed to be away from the company because the Koreans were infamous for bad attitudes after an all-night drinking exercise.

The area was called for some unknown reason Dogpatch, I have no inkling why. I assumed it related to the little town in the Little Abner cartoon of the same name. It could have been due to the dozens of barking dogs that acted as early warning systems to advise of interlopers. This was an area where the danger from bad guys was much more of a threat than Charlie.

I was being approached by 2 guys on a motorbike. I was immediately suspicious of their intentions because they both had their faces covered. It was a 50/50 deal because a face scarf acted to keep the road dust out of your mouth and nose. I had my .38 inside my pocket with my hand on the trigger. My M16 was slung muzzle down but ready for action. They may have had bad intentions, but we never found out. I got knocked on my ass by an explosion of some magnitude. I figured it was a near miss by an incoming rocket, but then I realized I never heard any incoming. The ground started to shake and I thought maybe we were having an earthquake. I didn’t remember reading of any earthquakes in Indochina. The two guys were innocent because they were frightened half to death and were di-di mau len (getting lost) dismounted and running on foot. As soon as I stood up, I got hit with a blast wave that pushed me against the block wall of the building behind me. I saw a plastic roof go flying past me double time down the dirty street.

Then, a series of crumps and the staccato sound of hundreds of rounds exploding convinced me there was a large explosion of some munitions nearby. I knew of 2 ammo dumps not too far. One belonged to the Marine Corps and the other to the Air Force. The really big stuff was in the Air Force dump but the bulk of the munitions were in the Marine Corps facility. I had been in the Marine dump just a few days ago to get stocked up on grenades and C-4. I was real partial to both. When I made it up to the turn off to Hill 327 and looked back, I could see the plumes of smoke filling the air. I think it was about 8 or 9 in the morning and everyone was coming out into the street to see the show. It was like a 4th of July celebration a few months early.