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From: John Rogalski
Date: 2/16/2006
Time: 9:45:47 PM
Remote Name: 207.200.116.13
Joe, I remember the night well, as I was Company Clerk in "D" Co. I remember that one of the KIA was mistakenly assigned to our company a few days before Tet, before being sent to HQ Co.. He was scared to death, sure that he was going to die. We did all we could to calm him, explaining that we were in a really good spot, no shooting, and life was a breeze compared to upcountry. Unfortunately he pulled guard on the 31st and was killed. I will never forget him and his rabid terror of being in Vietnam.
I don't think you mentioned it, but during the Tet offensive on the airfield, the bad guys holed quite a few of the fuel tankers parked along the perimeter road, as well as the huge tanks of the POL area. The smell of the fuel was overwhelming, and the fuel ( I some bad pictures of that) was running along the perimeter road, and filling the drainage ditch alongside. I remember praying that the baddies would not use tracer rounds to set off the leaks, or that the fire from the choppers' miniguns and grenades would not set off the fuel. What a conflagration that would have made!
That was one interesting night, as well as the next coupla weeks as the bad guys probed the airfiled on an irregular basis.