The Dawn Of Battle

                      The Dawn Of Battle




     Going to war is not the same for every one.  Some people are in the thick of battle every day, some people are in the war zone but they are safely tucked away in an office setting  or in a support group and only hear the sound of battle in the distance.
     As for myself, I always seemed to be skirting the perimeter of war. It was sort of like the second string football player who patiently waited his turn at fame and glory ( I don't care who says otherwise - there is nothing glorious about war ).
     My outfit was part of an amphibious assault task force. The task force carried around a battalion of Marines and their equipment, always on the ready to take them in to some unknown stretch of beach or up a winding river. One day things finally started to pop.
     About noon our fearless leader gathered us together and told us that we would be making a landing the next morning on a beach south of Da Nang - a place that supposedly had not seen friendly forces in quite some time. This was going to be a major operation the likes of which had not been seen since the Korean war.  Well, this got our attention.
    When we got back to our boats we found that things had started to move. Gunners mates from the ship were hauling away our two fifty caliber machine guns to be cleaned and tested.  We were told to build sandbag barriers around our gun mounts and the con of the boat. The ship returned our fifty calibers and gave us two additional ones for mounts on the bow.  The Marines provided us with trained personnel to man them.
    The entire ship was alive and busy with preparations for battle. The Marines loaded artillery shells into their tanks, cleaned their weapons and ran their engines. Each of us went to the armory and drew side arms, rifles and flack jackets this was something we had never done before.  Preparations went on into the night.
     Sometime around two in the morning each of our boats was loaded with 200 Marines. Two hours later the ship ballasted down and we sailed off into the night. There was no moon, no ambient light from stars or shore - it was the blackest night I have ever known. We were guided to our station by radio ( the ship tracked us on radar ) and there we went into an oval pattern about 3 miles from shore.
     The Marines had a tracked assault vehicle they called an armored personnel carrier. The thing was basically a steel box on tracks, totally sealed, carried 25 troops and weighed about 62 tons.  Once in the water only about two feet of it stuck out of the water ( talk about a low profile ).  Each of our boats carried a P-250 pump, should one of the personnel carriers start to take on water we were to pull along side and start pumping it out. The way we saw it was by the time we found the carrier in the dark it would most likely be on it's way to the bottom, it doesn't take much water to get a 62 ton box to sink. Anyway, the personnel carriers were in an oval pattern about 100 yards in front of us.   They were going to be the first to hit the beach.
     This was one miserable night - no light, the wind was blowing about 10 - 15 mph, the salt spray was soaking everyone, and the Marines packed in like sardines were getting bitchy. All of a sudden there was a loud explosion that spooked the hell out of everybody. Turns out there was a destroyer about a mile further out that was firing it's guns over our heads.  Then the sky lights up with rockets sailing over our heads. There was an LST converted to a rocket launcher working with the destroyer.  Soon all of the ships of our task force opened up with a barrage on the beach. The battle lines were drawn.
     We had no idea what was going to happen next but we knew the Navy was serious and we were getting worried.
     As the dawn light started to appear on the eastern sky we got ready to go in. Out of nowhere came 2 Phantom jets.  They flew so low to the water that they kicked up a rooster tail. They headed for the beach and for the next 20 minutes or so we watched as they climbed and dove towards the jungle behind the beach dropping napalm bombs and firing rockets. The jets departed and were replaced by 2 Cobra helicopters.  They took on the appearance of pissed off Humming birds as they bounced around the area firing their rockets and machine guns.
    Finally we got orders to go.  We were about 100 yards behind the APC's and watched as they hit the beach and off loaded their Marines who ran towards the jungle. When we arrived and dropped our ramps the Marines we carried walked off to join their brothers - no rush.
    We returned to the ship and started supplying the Marines with all of their equipment, everything from tanks to cranes. It took us two days to get everything ashore. During the first day the Navy brought in it's big guns - a battle ship, can't remember whether it was the USS New Jersey or the USS Missouri.  Which ever it was they sat out at sea so far that all you could see was a silhouette but when she fired her guns you knew it.
    For a week we stayed on our boats eating C- rations dated in the late 1940's, soaked to the bone and tired. Every now and then they would bring us in for a hot meal but mostly the break from C- rations was cold dried sandwiches whipped up by the ship's highly trained chefs. I was so tired one day that I laid down on the wet steel deck and went to sleep in the rain.
    The week long operation was over and we pulled the Marines back to the ship. We were so tired when we hit our compartment we just took off our wet dungarees and hung them on the end of our racks. The next morning they were dry and so stiff from the salt water we had to whack them against the table to loosen them up.
    This was as close to the real war as we got, we didn't dodge bullets and dive into fox holes.  Instead we faced the possibility of being crushed between boats, falling overboard in a night ops or picking up a serious case of pneumonia.
    After all was said and done I can't say that I felt any different towards the war. Even though I was in the war zone, the war was still a distant sound coming from the nearby jungles. My war was the stories the Marines told us and laughed about as they used humor to hide their fear and sorrow.  They didn't want to talk of the fire fights and death.  In retrospect,  I think we were OK with the humorous side.