| Home | Stories about the 68th | Introduction | Poem | Chapter 01 | Chapter 02 | Chapter 03 | Chapter 04 | Chapter 05 | 
| Chapter 06  | Chapter 07 | Chapter 08 | Chapter 09 | Chapter10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 | Chapter 13 |
| Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 | Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 |

 All stories remain the personal property of the contributor/author of the story.  You may download the stories for your personal use but they may not be distributed, published or used/sent to any publication or other web site without written permission from the contributing author.

Chapter 15

  by Kathy Hufford

   ROCKETS, BULLETS, MEDALS, AND BOMBS

7.62mm, 6 Barrel MiniGun firing at 4000 rounds a minute. The gun can flex 90 degrees down, 65 degrees out, and a little up and in. I is controlled by the co-pilot. Each gun will fire a 3 second burst to prevent running out of ammo. Makes a very loud RAAAP sound when fired.

Everyone that went to Viet Nam got awarded medals. You read about guys, 30 years later, that is a “Bronze Star” awardee doing this or that.  In many units, if you complete your tour, you get a Bronze Star for attendance. To most everyone, the amount and type of medals you were awarded meant how much you did, not how well you did. Of course, the Medal of Honor is a separate case. In aviation units you received one Air Medal for every 50 hours of flying combat support and one for every 25 hours of Direct Combat assault. All flying in Viet Nam was at least combat support. As an example, I flew 2200 hours in Viet Nam , on two tours. I was awarded 64 Air Medals, and 4 more for Valor. You fly enough, and stay alive, you will accumulate medals.

During my first tour, lots of pilots were getting awarded Purple Hearts when they were hit by a piece of plexiglass windshield when a bullet came thru. Most of the injuries were scratches from plexiglass. If you get injured in any way, while “engaging” the enemy and you need medical attention, you get the Purple Heart. At the time I thought it would be cool have a Purple Heart. I had lots of plexiglass shot up, but never had any hit me, till the end of my tour when I also got shot in the head. For rocket attacks on base, you fall out of your bunk and run to the bunker. One time during an attack, the doctor, called a Flight Surgeon in aviation units, got out of his bunk and started running down from the second story barracks. The rockets were particularly intense, so he jumped from the first landing below the second floor to the ground, spraining his foot.  He put himself in for the Purple Heart and got it awarded to him. Even if you get wounded by your own gunfire or troops, you get a Purple Heart, since you were wounded “engaging” the enemy.

We built a bomb shelter/bunker behind the barracks. It was made of old engine shipping crates and lots of sandbags. I guess it was about 4 sandbags thick on the top. It was strong enough for gunfire, bomb fragments and mortar fire. About midway thru my first tour, the Viet Cong started using Russian made 122mm Rockets with BIG warheads. They made a hole in the ground about 10 foot across and 5 feet deep in soft sand. Many times, while setting in the bunker, in our underwear, someone would say we were safe from everything, except 122mm rocket. Of course, that’s what was raining down around us at the time. During one rocket attack, I was in the Air Force photo lab developing color slides in a Kodak E6 kit. I had just put the developer in the container with the film, when the rockets starting hitting on the other side of base. The alarms went off and the guy that ran the photo lab told me I had to leave. I said I would after I fixed the film. He got real excited and ordered me to the bunker. We spent about 50 min in the bunker. My slides of additional POWs was ruined, a casualty of war.