Alwaysawarrior

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MY FIRST DAY IN THE MEKONG DELTA

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On that first day I arrived in the Mekong Delta
It was like I had stepped into the twilight zone
Suddenly everything I had known in life was gone

My life, safety and carefree attitude that I had
It was now gone in an instant replaced with fear
Thoughts raced through my head about dying here

Suddenly the reality set in like a ton of bricks
Thinking you were a lean, mean fighting machine
You could quite easily be killed in a mere second

Every modern thing I had taken for granted was gone
I had just stepped back in time to a primitive life
Where Saigon was modern the Delta was the stone age

Flying down from Saigon to my new air base was okay
But we were diverted suddenly to another air base
Can-Tho Army Airfield about 8 miles south of ours

It seems as we were approaching Binh-Thuy Air Base
The Viet-Cong started shelling that base with mortars
Hoping they could blow up our plane blocking the runway

We were coming in on our final approach to land there
Suddenly the planes engines roared back to full power
The pilot banked hard left and climbed out quickly

We were told that the air base was under attack now
We'd fly further south and land at Can-Tho Airfield
But to be prepared to get off the airplane quickly

We were to do what they called an assault landing
Approach high and then dive down quickly to land
The plane would roll down the runway never stopping

We would have to jump from the back of the airplane
Then we would run for the ditches along the runway
The load master would then throw all of our bags out

They would then go back to maximum speed and takeoff
If the Viet-Cong didn't start shelling the airbase
We would then go out on the runway to get our bags

This welcome to Vietnam was not what I had expected
It certainly shook what macho image I may have had
And I asked myself what had I got myself into here



© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.



This was just the first day I faced down in the Mekong Delta
and there was still a year to hopefully survive yet and then
go back to the real world where everyone just takes their own
freedom for granted each and everyday hardly ever spending a
minute if even that thinking about those who were serving our
nation to keep them free and safe every single day and night.





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MY FIRST DAY IN THE MEKONG DELTA