Shots Fired

CHAPTER VI

We had heard that if we came under fire, we would have to radio back to Naval Support Activity Saigon, explain the situation, and get their permission to return fire. Once when I thought the Craft Master was in a good mood, (very rare) I asked if that was true? He said “I will make the decision on when, and if we return fire”.
Many times as we traveled up and down the river we would hear shots fired, but we never saw the enemy, no one got hit, and since we were moving, we would pretty much ignore it, until one day as we were moving down river, and I was manning the starboard .50, we heard a shot fired from the river bank starboard side, not more than 150 meters away. I quickly moved the gun slightly to the left, where I picked up a person in my sites dressed in black, as he (she) ducked behind some green foliage, a broad leaf plant of some kind. I yelled to the pilot house, “I see him, should I open fire”? Which I was well prepared to do, but the Craft Master said, “Forget it!” A couple minutes later we were well on down the river, and the incident was over, but my heart was still beating 90 miles an hour. That was the first time that I almost squeezed the trigger on another human being, and I didn’t like the feeling.

The second time it happened, we were moored port side to the pier, (I can’t remember where), it was in the middle of the night, maybe 1or2 in the morning, and I was on guard with my trusty 12ga shotgun.
I was standing up on the port wing of the bridge, when I heard a noise port side aft. As I looked back that way, I saw a brand new case of c-rations lying on the pier. A moment later a very young Vietnamese man jumped up on the pier, and reached for the c-rations. Thinking that he was a thief, I aimed the shotgun at his head, and yelled for him to halt. Now we were not that far away from each other, and he could see that shotgun barrel pretty clear, so he threw his hands in the air and screamed, “No shoot, No shoot!” I could see that he was not armed, and before I could say anything else, I heard the voice of one of our crew members saying, “It’s ok Larry, I gave him the box of c-rations.
This crew member was openly gay, and would often bring young Vietnamese boys on board, and sometimes keep them in his state room overnight. It was pretty obvious to me why he had given him the c-rations.
I told him that he would somehow have to square it with the Store Keeper in the morning, or I would tell him, and he said he would. Immediately the boy shouldered the c-rations and ran off down the pier, and into the night.