Alwaysawarrior
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TODAY WE BECAME THE TARGET
Like a falcon gliding in flight seeking out it's prey
We flew back and forth searching out the enemy below
Swooping down quickly from the thick dark gray clouds
We were dropping leaflets over the Cambodian border
These leaflets would allow the VC to surrender to us
It guaranteed that they would receive good treatment
Suddenly tracer rounds from ground fire ripped past
The enemy below were trying to shoot down our aircraft
Like angry bees these tracer rounds were hunting us
Mesmerized by these tracer rounds graceful dancing
We banked left and right then the pilot dived down
To flee from these machine gun rounds striking us
Outside my window a couple of rounds had hit the wing
The wing tank had been hit and was leaking fuel out
I swear that I heard the angels singing and I prayed
It was like sitting on a time bomb waiting for death
I kept waiting for that big bang or a flash of light
Wondering how big of a hole we'd leave in the ground
It seemed like hours passed before we had touched down
We bounced hard and the pilot switched off everything
So we wouldn't have any sparks to ignite the fuel leak
This time we were extremely lucky and we cheated death
We both had climbed out of the aircraft to get far away
The crash-fire trucks were racing down the runway to us
As they hosed down the aircraft and plugged the leak
I looked over at the pilot and then our aircraft again
I bent down and I kissed the ground and thanked God
I loved flying and I had volunteered many times
But after this flight it suddenly occurred to me
That I could easily get killed in those aircraft
Though none of my flights were required of me there
I use to volunteer to go along as a spotter to fly
It was thrilling to me to get to fly the missions
But my sergeant frowned on my own extra activities
Because it would have cause him too much aggravation
Especially if I'd gotten killed volunteering to fly
© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.
During the times that I had flown as a volunteer crewman
on the small psychological warfare missions as a spotter,
this mission was the very first time that we had been hit
by gound fire from a heavy caliber machine-gun as it was
easy enough to get yourself killed serving in Vietnam on
the ground. But if you had volunteered to go up flying on
the psychological warfare operation missions in the very
small two seat aircraft, you were really trying to push
your fate and you quickly realized that you could easily
be killed up there flying over the Vietnam and Cambodian
border area while serving my tour of duty in Vietnam. So
after this incident which could have easily led to our
deaths, it was my last flight serving as a volunteer air
craft crewman dropping Chu Hoi leaflets along the border.
When I recall those things many of us had done as naïve
young kids fighting in a man's war over in Vietnam just
trying to prove to our fellow airmen that we were just
as brave and as good as they were and how hard that we'd
tried to prove it to them so we would be accepted by them
as young airmen who could do any assignments given to us
to carry out during our own tours of duty in Vietnam.
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TODAY WE BECAME THE TARGET
TODAY WE BECAME THE TARGET