A Rifle: Dropped Once, Never Fired*

By Dave Beakey

Echo Co 68-69

We were running night patrols with the ARVN’s. You had to give them credit for one thing; they were practical. One day, a few of them were swimming off the shore of the island we temporarily inhabited. Suddenly, one of them disappeared. He slid beneath the surface. His friends started yelling and there was a lot of confusion. Then, they located him. He had been underwater for about three minutes. He looked dead to me. Kind of gray and motionless. Two of them grabbed him by the ankles and they held him upside down. They shook him and water poured out of his mouth. He made a few noises and they laid him down. He finally sat up with a strange, embarrassed look on his face. He smiled and all of his friends laughed. Soon they were swimming again.

Later that day, their sergeant was discussing the details of our night patrol. The US marine sergeant said, “We go on patrol at 2200 hours.” The ARVN sergeant said, “No, No! We go at 2000 hours!” The marine sergeant asked him why the time mattered. The ARVN sergeant said, “2200 hours, VC come out!” Like I said, they were practical.

* This story is dedicated to Goose, from Echo Company 2/1. He told me I should write about some of the humorous things we did and saw in Vietnam. He’s right.