General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 1968 (Your Help, Please!) [View all]Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)half-healed AK wounds in time for Têt. I was on guard duty the night of Tet on an LZ built on a mountain top & could see fireworks going off in 4 little villages in the distance that night. Then, one after the other, the fireworks turned into red & white automatic weapons tracers hitting & ricocheting up into the air (ours were red, theirs white), and other sorts of explosive flashes.
Not too long after, I was on a convoy through the old city of Hue, which had been pretty much blown apart during Têt.
And I remember watching the 1st Cav ammo dump & aviation fuel tanks blowing up one night in March. And I remember the cheers arising from the foxholes & bunkers on the perimeter of Camp Evans, just south of the DMZ (I was on guard duty again) when the news was broadcast of LBJ's withdrawal from the race. (Illicit transistor radios in the guard positions).
I got back to the States in July & was serving out my last 6 months in the 2nd Armored Div. when the Chicago convention happened. At that time I was involved with the antiwar movement within the military & behind the scenes at the Oleo Strut coffee house in Killeen, TX. We were told that we would be deployed to Chicago if the riots went on. (Tanks!. although I was by that time a psych medic & wouldn't have been cruising Chicago in a tank crew or anything.)
As the Spæfrú said to Odin in the Hávamal, "And would you hear yet more?"