Dale Hanson

They didn't want to cross an opening either.

And so they would go across the narrowest place right over the top of me.

And so now it's one of those things of praying that they'll go by and be ready to take out as many.

And they had a front element, a patrol element in the front.

And I think there was about seven or eight of them.

And I thought I was pretty certain I could take that element out.

But then the rest of them, we would put them under fire.

But once they collected themselves, they'd overrun us, no problem.

Damn.

So anyway, long and short, we called for the extraction.

Same kind of a thing.

God help us to get through this thing.

Same thing, an aircraft came by, and the point element took off running as fast as they could, went right past me, and I'm shorter than here to you, and went right past me without looking and took off, and then the rest of the element followed suit.

So we're ducked, we're in the mud, and we got as low as we could go, and then we sunk into the mud, and then...

The chopper came in and they wouldn't go if we were under fire, etc.

Very strict rules of engagement, but they got us out.

And I gave the debriefing, gave it to the major, and I have no idea what happened.

You know, you hope that they took out the place, you know.

You never got confirmation?

Never got confirmation that they did anything.