Two Days—Four Rifles

[thedrifter]

Two Days—Four Rifles <br />
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<br />
by William A. Doherty <br />
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<br />
Reconnaissance (Recon) inserts were a part of everyday life for Marines during the Vietnam War. When the recon teams became engaged with the...

[thedrifter]

It was almost noon. I had just turned slightly to look to my rear and turned my head back in time to see Pat lifting his rifle with a look of horror on his face. He opened up on automatic across my left front. I couldn’t see what he saw, but I knew it had to be bad. I swung the M60 around in the direction he was firing and opened up. It fired two rounds and jammed. While I tried to clear the jam, Pat went through his original magazine, then a second, and began a third. At that point I suggested that, just possibly, it was time to get back up the hill.


The previous day’s scenario was repeated. We climbed that hill three times as fast as we had gone down—yelling all the way! When we reached our position the whole team was alert. Over the noise of the stream, we could hear moaning at the base of the hill. Several grenades silenced the moans. Two men went down to check the scene. A few more shots were fired, and they returned with three more rifles—one of them in pieces.


Clearly it was time to go home. We headed across a heavily wooded ridgeline to our LZ. Fortunately the helicopters were already in the air, because the enemy were on our tail. Some shots were exchanged with our rear element, and when the air package of two Hueys and two CH–46s arrived on station, the aircrew told us they could see a swarm behind us.


The LZ was too far to reach at the rate we could travel, but just before we would’ve had to set up to make a stand, we found a small bare spot on the ridgeline. It wasn’t big enough to land the bird, but necessity being the mother of invention, one of the CH–46 pilots got an idea. He turned his ship aft end to the bare spot, backed up in a hover, and dropped his ramp. We ran down the side of the bare spot and up the ramp as the Hueys made rocket and gun runs over our heads against our pursuers—pelting us with hot ejected cartridges in the bargain. All’s well that ends well. With no one seriously hurt, we returned to Chu Lai with four rifles and a good story.


When I went home at the end of May I had the premier war souvenir registered with all necessary paperwork. I did not let that rifle out of my sight until I arrived at the Los Angeles (LA) International Airport. It was strapped to me through Da Nang, for the 2 days I was in Okinawa during processing, and it was in the compartment over my head on the flight from Okinawa to LA. I carried it right through LA Airport until it went into the baggage compartment—New York bound. Things were a lot different back then.


>Mr. Doherty is retired from the New York City Police Force and lives in Floral Park, NY.

http://www.mca-marines.org/Gazette/sting.html


Sempers,

Roger
:marine:

[wdoherty]

That Marine, LCPL William Doherty, was my dad. I still have the rifle and all of the paperwork. And I met all of the Marines mentioned in 1992 at a "Duckbill" reunion. Great men and heroes.

-William Doherty, Jr.