Sitting there watching the involuntary movements of the body due to vibrations. Memories returned. However, there was no fear this time.  This was his second tour in Viet Nam.  He recalled the night in the bunker a year before. Immediately upon his return to his unit they packed and were airlifted to a place in the mountains near Hamburger Hill. He recalled that the mess hall served bar-b-que pork ribs and beans for the evening meal. It was their first hot meal in that position. A storm rolled through after dinner and lighting hit the hillside. The howitzer crew was shocked by the strike, explosive devices on the perimeter were set off and time fuses on projectiles were damaged.

He started his guard duty tour at about 4:00am. He heard explosions in the 155mm battery position and thought they were firing a mission. Then there were no muzzle flashes and no sound of voices. He scrambled to wake the crew and get them to cover. He said there was an explosion so close that he felt the concussion and dirt fell on him He got on the ground as quickly as possible. Two more explosions were felt near his feet as he low crawled towards the bunker.  He rolled into the bunker and the next explosion one was on top of the bunker.  He was temporarily knocked unconscious. His left foot felt light and there was a hole in the roof of the bunker. His weapon had been on top of the bunker where he had been sleeping an hour earlier. He crawled for the crew served weapon in the gun pit.

He came face to face with an NVA sapper. They looked at each other and in flash he had the M60 Machine gun in his hand. The pain was starting to come now, still he stood to try and get a bead on the Sapper. A crewmember took over the weapon as he took up a position on the ground to wait for medical help. Air force jets worked the hillside over with small arms and rockets. The medic evacuation choppers followed them in. When they got him to the helipad there were several bodies there in bags. Horrible wounds were everywhere.  He sat beside a stretcher where the young man’s foot was a mass of  blood and crushed meat. He was reminded of a boiled pig’s foot.  The pain continued to grow worse and blood was running from his boot. Medics cut the boot off and applied pressure to the wound. He did not remember being taken into the field unit. He woke on a gurney as he was being prepared for loading aboard an airplane. He began to remember what had happened. He remembered that the unit commander had came and talked with him at  some point in the field hospital unit. Then SFC Boyd was loaded into the ambulance. He was badly burned and told the young man that the unit commander was among the first to die. He was in the command post when a Sapper tossed in a bag of explosives. He also revealed that more than 50% of the unit was killed during the attack.

Before the Army and often during basic training he said that he heard the term baptism in fire. There was another Baptism on the battlefield. There is active participation on the battlefield. One must see and touch the dead to survive.  They only come back to visit in dreams. He could not understand why he had been so afraid of the dead before. He recalled that as he began to get well he longed to be back in the war zone. That night near Hamburger Hill had become a part of him. He thirsted for the confrontation that would let blood.