Shawn Ryan

the elephant grass catches fire down in the mountain, and the wind from that mountain area was blowing those flames up the hill, and then the NVA were going around.

When they saw that, they were going around and setting fires on the base of that knoll that we're on.

So at one point, the elephant grass was burning, we're looking down the hill, you have all these smoke waves, and then the heat waves you see, you can look through and you can see the NVA there, lighting stuff, further down the mountain.

But they weren't shooting at us, they were all lighting up the mountainside.

So I declared a prairie fire emergency.

Spider was flying Coby that day.

We couldn't go, oh, and Spider comes out and he goes, do not go to the northeast.

We had an intel report there's an NVA ambush waiting for RT Idaho there.

I never had an intel report like that.

So we didn't go.

Now we're fighting the fire.

Lynn and Bubba cut S4, tried to blow the flames back down the hill, but the mountain and the wind and everything was blowing that stuff up.

Thankfully, Captain Tuong got there and he came up above us and he came down the mountain flying sideways.

And I looked up and saw Captain Tuong, and I recognized him because from that day, when I was upside down in other missions, and we of course had bought him drinks, he came down and he landed and the prop wash blew back all the flames.

We jumped on that King Bee.

When he lifted off, whoosh, all of the LZ was covered with flames.

And of course we left under fire.

And that night I took a shower, and when I'm walking back to my hooch from the shower, because the shower's over to the left, past the officers' barracks, and our hooches were here, and we, as I walked back to my room, I hear this little cheap transistor radio playing Silent Night.

I go, son of a bitch, it's Christmas.

I don't think I'm going to see my birthday.