The Life of an American Warrior Vol. I
Discovering the Warrior Within
At that moment, there was a sudden shake of the aircraft followed almost immediately by a loud explosion. It felt to Travis like something had hit the side of the fuselage right beside him. Sgt. Brooks was sitting directly across from him and had a scared look in his face. Travis looked to his right and saw a hole in the aircraft only about a half-inch from his shoulder.
Sgt. Brooks looking at Travis asked, “Am I hit?”
Travis could see a large piece of metal embedded in the vertical support the sergeant had been leaning against. He got up, looked, but couldn’t find any injuries.
“No Sergeant, I think you got lucky. I wonder what hit us,” he said.
Before the sergeant could reply, another blast hit and violently shook the aircraft. That explosion had hit somewhere in the front of the aircraft. It was now apparent to all that they were under attack. Travis could see a large opening towards the front of the plane. His first thought was someone had opened the door. When he looked to the rear, all he could see were men trying to escape. The chaos was overwhelming; men were cursing and fighting for the exit. Both Tom and Sam were trying to get up and move to the rear. As Travis looked around, he saw the first burst of machine gun fire ripping through men as they pushed for the rear exit.
Immediately he grabbed Tom’s belt and Sam’s arm yelling, “Get down. We need to try to get out of here through the front hatch.”
“Lead the way, Travis,” Tom frantically exclaimed terrified at what was happening.
Turning to the front he noticed Sgt. Brooks hadn’t moved. He looked as though he was surprised he was still alive. “You too Sergeant, shake it off. Let’s go!” Travis snapped with authority.
“Yes, let’s go,” Sgt. Brooks said as he got up and followed the three men to the front of the aircraft.
As they reached the front, Travis saw a huge hole which he thought was the front hatch. He quickly realized it wasn’t the hatch. It was a hole blown in the side of the plane. This would be their escape route. Another round of machine gun fire ripped through the aircraft. There were screams, curses and begging coming from the rear of the aircraft. The training given to Travis by the Marine Corps in boot camp kicked in. He took control of the three men and directed them through the hole blown in the side of the aircraft. Tom went first, followed immediately by Sam then Sgt. Brooks. Travis was next, but before he could get out a bullet from the machine gun hit a large structure in front of him. When the bullet struck, it splintered and several small fragments hit him in the face and head.
A moment later he was outside the aircraft. All three were huddled together in front of the landing gear, using it for cover even though the aircraft was still moving forward, although very slowly. Several bullets again struck the aircraft and the ground around them. They couldn’t hear them strike over the deafening roar of the engines, but they could see the damage appear as each one found its mark.
Travis could see a large indention in the ground created by the explosion that had put the hole in the side of the aircraft. Since that was the only cover he could see, it would have to do.
“Quick, let’s get into that blast hole.” Travis yelled as he pointed towards the depression.
Sgt. Brooks and Travis were the only ones to move. Tom and Sam both fell trying to move. Travis was almost to the safety of the hole when he looked back and saw the two on the ground. That was the first time he noticed they were too weak to help themselves. Immediately, he ran back and helped each back to their feet, put their arms around his shoulders then reached around their waists and grabbed their belts.
“Hold on,” he yelled. Then with a mighty lift, he picked both men up and carried them to the safety of the hole.
Sgt. Brooks had run to the hole and dove in expecting to have three men pile on top of him. When they didn’t, he looked up to see Travis helping the two fallen men to their feet and carry them to where he was waiting. He could see the tracers striking the aircraft and around the men. When they reached the safety of the hole, all three dove in and got as flat to the ground as they could.
The aircraft was still slowly creeping forward then the pilot shut down the engines and the plane stopped. They still couldn’t see into the back of the plane, but could hear screams of fear and pain coming from within. They could see tracers from the machine guns being fired into the aircraft from the tree line across the runway. With the engines silent, bullets could be heard striking the aircraft and zinging overhead. Mortar rounds were still coming in sporadically, but they were falling a long way from the plane.
Artillery began to rain down on the tree line, putting a halt to the machine gun and mortar fire. When the artillery stopped, Travis could hear trucks and looked out to see at least twenty vehicles of all types loaded with Marines headed for the tree line. They were firing thirty and fifty caliber machine guns from the top of the trucks into the jungle. He watched as they stopped at the smoking tree line and Marines jumped out. He could hear small arms fire then moments later they were dragging a body out along with several captured weapons.
Sgt. Brooks looked up and said, “Travis, let’s see if we can help the wounded.”
As Travis got up, he looked at Tom and Sam then said, “We’ll see what we can do. You two stay here and rest, we’ll be back as soon as we can.”
Tom lay there and nodded. Sam looked up at Travis and said, “Travis, do you know you’re shot?”
Sgt. Brooks heard Sam’s comment. He stopped, turned his attention to the young private and after a quick look he said, “Maybe you should sit down, you’re wounded.”
Travis began frantically looking to see what they were talking about. He finally had to ask, “Where?”
“In the face and head,” Sgt. Brooks said. As he conducted a closer look he added, “Head wounds always look worse than they are. You might need a couple of stitches.”
“If that’s all it is, let’s go see if we can help inside the aircraft. I’m not as bad as some of those guys are going to be.” Travis said as he stood up to go help with the wounded.
As they approached the rear ramp of the plane, men began to come out. Some were badly wounded and were being helped by those that could. Others were in shock and wandering around in a daze.
Sgt. Brooks told Travis, “You keep those in shock together. I’ll see what I can do inside.”
As he was gathering up the wandering men, he looked up and saw the ambulances and trucks coming. The only words he could think to say were, “Sit down here, help is on the way.”
After the ambulances arrived, the men and women set up a triage. They were determining the order in which the wounded needed to be treated. There was a continuous arrival of help and soon Travis wasn’t needed. He decided to go see if Tom and Sam were still waiting or if the rescuers had already collected them.
Travis could see they were still in the safety of the hole. Neither was moving and a cold chill overtook him. Then he noticed they were breathing and realized they were both asleep. He too was tired and sat down on the jagged edge of the hole. The next thing he remembered was a corpsman waking him up.
“Wake up, let me take a look at your wounds,” the corpsman said.
While the corpsman looked him over, Travis saw Sgt. Brooks step into the hole and began to shake the other two men awake.
“Get up, we don’t want to miss the truck; it’s a long walk back,” Sgt. Brooks said.
While the two men were trying to collect themselves, the corpsman said to Travis, “You’re going to need some stitches in your head and a doctor will need to look at your cheek.”
“What’s wrong with my cheek?” Travis asked.
“Not much. Just a fragment of something is lodged in it.” the corpsman replied. “I don’t suppose you would know what it was that hit you?”
“Yes I would. It was a bullet that hit part of the aircraft and splintered right in front of me.” Travis said.
Sgt. Brooks was watching and listening and had to add, “You’re a lucky one, I’d say.”
Sam had gotten up, looked around and remarked, “Damn, we sure have lost a lot of men just getting here. I wonder what’s going to happen when we actually get into combat.”
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