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I shivered as I stepped out of the bunker into the cold, dark night. The small patrol was forming up near the front gate. This was a special patrol tonight, made up of just three marines and one Popular Forces (PF), and two of the marines were fire team leaders. JT was a newly promoted corporal, like myself, and we both went on more patrols than necessary, maybe to prove something, or perhaps, we just liked it. The other marine was known to us as Zorba the Mad Greek, a Lance Corporal who had served in country longer than most of us. The PF was a good fighter named Vee. I looked at the others and nodded my head, thinking, "Yea, this patrol is special 'cus it's made up of some of the best in the unit." And what made the patrol different was that we were going out to "snoop & poop" instead of going out to look for trouble and setting up an ambush in a completely different location. Lately, there had been constant rumors floating around our unit, designated Quebec-Three, that the village of Quang Nam Five was being heavily infiltrated by Main Force VC units. Quang Nam Five was located at the extreme tip of our TAOR (Tactical Area of Responsibility).
The village was mostly pro-Viet Cong. During daylight patrols the villagers would greet us with sullen stares, even if the patrol was nothing more than a friendly MEDCAP, which meant our Corpsman, was along to administer shots, or check out the children for illnesses. Our Doc loved the Vietnamese children and spread good will throughout the numerous villages surrounding our outpost. But, the children in Quan Nam Five kept their distance from the Americans, they were genuinely frightened by our presence. The VC influence was strong there, the terror was real, and the threats of retaliation were genuine. Therefore, it was decided that we would send out a small patrol to perform an early morn-ing reconnaissance of the village. If it was determined that there was a strong presence of VC, we would return with a larger force to ambush and destroy them. Hopefully, our small patrol would be able to slip into the village undetected, and yet be heavily armed enough if we had to fight our way out. JT would carry an M60 machine gun. The PF carried a Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR). Zorba was armed with his Thompson sub-machine gun and his .45 caliber pistol. I carried my M16 that night, because it was lighter than my old, trusty M14, and I also had to carry the PRC-25 radio...
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