by David V Cole

Created on: January 21, 2009

We opened fire on the unsuspecting enemy as they passed in front of us in the open rice paddy field. I could see the look of horror on one Viet Cong's face as I directed my rifle fire into his chest. He screamed as though he was more surprised then in pain. He fell face down onto the ground on top of another body. I ordered my squad to rise from our hidden cover next to the rice paddy dike. We immediately swept through the masses of enemy dead killing any other soldiers who were attempting to escape or appeared they could counter attack. As we moved through the dead and dying, you could hear the air escaping from their lungs when we turned them over. The smell of death was very prevalent and I had become accustomed to it in past battles. After moving through the corpses, I ordered my squad to strip the bodies of all clothing. It would be sent to the rear intelligence personnel to identify the unit we had encountered and destroyed. There may be other information in the various shirts and trousers we peeled off the dead soldiers.

As we continued to strip the clothing, I observed one of the Marines with his Ka-bar knife out. He was preparing to butcher one of the enemy dead by cutting off his ears for trophies. I yelled at him and told him to stop. He looked at me in disgust, but followed my orders. He flung the dead soldier onto the ground like a bag of garbage. As my other men were stripping bodies, I observed some of them go through enemy soldiers' back packs and take items such as knives and personal material. They were taking anything they could sell later for profit to non-combat soldiers in the rear. These were nothing more than the Vietnam War's souvenirs to be proudly shown to friends and relatives in the United States. I understood the reasons why my men would canvass the dead after each battle. It was something that was now a part of them from their combat experiences. We had not always been on the winning team during battles, and had suffered some horrific consequences in enemy ambushes over the months.

I had to control my twenty five man squad. I would not allow then to butcher dead enemy soldiers, but would allow collection of souvenirs as my compromise. This was their spoils of war and a satisfying moment for their victory.

I told my squad to find any food in the dead soldiers' back packs, as we had not eaten for several days. Our Company had been under seize by enemy mortars at our jungle base. We were unable to get resupplied as the choppers would

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>