My First Day In Viet Nam

My first day in Viet Nam I helped set up platoon sized tents in the company area. India Company was returning from operations and they needed tents. I was at Dong Ha combat base, I Corps, Quang Tri Province. Dong Ha was a relative safe area. Most of the fighting was up north in the DMZ.

Early evening we were taking a break enjoying a cool breeze. I heard a helicopter flying in from the north. The helicopter was bringing back a helicopter that had been shot down. All of a sudden a fire broke out on top of the Sikorsky H 34 helicopter. In less then a minuet the fire was inside the chopper. All of a sudden I saw a crew member jump out of the chopper. He was completely engulfed in flames. You would not know it was a man by the shape of the fire ball. A second crew member fell out of the chopper engulfed in flames. The chopper was still a thousand feet in the air. The chopper crashed into the ground in a ball of flames.

I knew that I had come to a very dangerous place, and it was. I see the crash almost every day.