Today we were having a combat assault with the 25th Infantry providing the Grunts. Manchu troops, tough and gritty, seasoned veterans of the air war. They would charge out of the helicopter and kick Viet Cong ass wherever they could find them. They always had a smile for the pilots. We gave them the ride of their lives, delivering them directly to the fury of combat.
Nothing can compare with the chaos of combat and the combat assault was the worst.
Helicopters fill the sky, gunships shooting up the treeline. Tracers flying everywhere, smoke and fire, explosions, napalm, these combat assaults were terrifying to be a part of. Major Bauman ordered all of his helicopter pilots to take the dreaded Malaria pill on Tuesdays. The large Orange horse pills were certainly produced by the lowest bidder, and they gave me diarrhea of epic proportions. I slept under the mosquito net I was issued and I hated the pills.