Richard C. Ekstedt
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This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Rich is first stationed at the 5/22nd Artillery, Banmethout, Vietnam. This small unit is not much more than a firebase, day and night firing large artillery pieces such as the 8 incher, 155 mm and the 175 mm Howitzers. The aid station is small and certainly no place for a Specialist E-6, Clinical Specialist. The U. S. Army reassigned Rich to the 4/60th Artillery in An Khe, Vietnam, which, like the 5/22nd Artillery, is located in the Middle Highlands.
Duty at the An Khe main base, Camp Radcliff, is quiet and easy for the first few months. A little old Vietnamese lady who works in the Mess Hall, the G.l.'s call her Irma, would stop on the way home at night and lob in a few mortars, just to keep everyone on their toes, but other than that there isn't a lot real exciting, or dangerous, going on. It isn't the big hospital but at least it is comparatively safe. Duties include the normal things one does in an aid station such as treat venereal disease, fungal infections, snake bites, scorpion bites, malaria, hepatitis, minor wounds, gastrointestinal problems and the common cold. Outside of the aid station Rich and the Doctor assigned to the unit, Doc Preston Phelps, go on MEDCAP's ( Medical Civilian Assistance Programs ) to the An Khe Hospital, the local orphanage and nearby Montagnard villages. The other duty outside of the aid station is to maintain administrative and education standards for medical corpsmen assigned to artillery support at distant firebases and landing zones LZ's ).
Going on MEDCAP's or out to firebases and landing zones requires, of course, crossing the perimeter of Camp Radcliff. Camp Radcliff is a big pile of dirt continuously beaten by a multitude of military vehicles and troops. The huge perimeter is cleared and has three rows of barbed wire, claymores and guard towers every 100 meters to protect the main base. There is no traffic in this no mans land and as a result the grass grows green. Thus the perimeter is called the greenline.
It is on one of the rare administrative and educational support trips to LZ Susie that SP6 Rich Dalton finds himself in trouble. Prior to arriving at the Landing Zone there had been some incoming small arms fire but nothing out of the ordinary. After the helicopter has left Rich, the Battalion Commander and a few others at LZ Susie, an all out attempt is made, by the Vietcong, to overrun the base. During the terror and confusion of the attack Rich is wounded while trying to help a soldier that is also wounded. The Vietcong are turned back by the power of Cobra and Huey gunships with the assist of "Puff the Magic Dragon." Rich finally gets to go to a hospital in Vietnam when he is evacuated to the 17th Field Hospital at his home base in An Khe.
Lieutenant Sandi Haugen, Registered Nurse, helps Rich through his short stay at the hospital. The wounds are rather slight, the main concern being a bonk on the head. After talking into the night, in an attempt to keep Rich from going to sleep because of his head wound, Sandi and Rich discover that they are both married, love and miss their spouses very much, and decide to be friends.
The 4th Infantry Division assumes command of Camp Radcliff and informs the Commander of the 4/6e Artillery that he must form an Ambush/Recon Patrol since the Rangers would no longer be able to perform that function. The patrol is eventually made up of soldiers like the water truck driver, the craft shop clerk and the Enlisted Man's Club Manager. Rich is a medical person with five years in the military and rather than send one of his corpsmen as medic for the patrol he volunteers for the job. The 12 men in the patrol attend a crash course in Ranger techniques, name themselves the "Dirty Dozen" and generally treat the whole thing as a joke.
At the same time that the "Dirty Dozen" charade is going on, and the patrol begins actually flying back and forth across the greenline in training, Rich finds that there is a heavy Vietcong influence at the orphanage. The children are to be used as weapons of sabotage and insurgency. Rich, Sandi and Doc Phelps work together to try to counter the VC influence at the orphanage even as they make a Christmas presentation of learning tools for the children.
The day after Christmas the "Dirty Dozen" are called out on what they thought to be another training alert. The alert turns out to be a mission to take out the VC that have been dropping mortars on the main base. Though the team of misfits have only had the accelerated Ranger training course the mission is successful in spite of a deadly firefight, patrol members wounded and a helicopter crash.
After a much needed rest Rich finds out that Sandi, by now his best friend, has taken it upon herself to go to the orphanage and is hours late in returning to the 17th Field Hospital. Rich and Doc Phelps have no luck finding Sandi and turn to the Military Police and the Rangers for help. Manpower is short. There is no help. As Rich considers his options and prepares to go after Sandi by himself, Doc Phelps rallies the Dirty Dozen and the helicopter pilot Rich saved after the crash. Mr. Jeffreys, the helicopter pilot, brings two Huey gunships, and, with the "Dirty Dozen", go to save Sandi and the kids.
Sandi and the orphans are found but the Vietcong are fierce and it takes all of the considerable firepower that the "Dirty Dozen" and the gunships possess to free them. The cost is high; one member of the Dirty Dozen killed and several wounded. Among the wounded is Rich and his wound is critical.
Sandi and Doc Phelps visit Rich at the 24th Convalescent Hospital in Cam Ranh Bay after he has been treated at the 17th Field Hospital in An Khe and the 8th Field Hospital in Cam Ranh Bay. Sandi and Doc Phelps are looking forward to Rich returning to An Khe to resume the comradeship and adventure.
Rich has orders assigning him to Madigan General Hospital at Fort Lewis, Washington, to continue treatment for his wounds. Rich has to say goodbye to Doc Phelps and the "Dirty Dozen" and to his special friend, his love, Sandi.
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