we were in the song cua dai one afternoon

up by hoi an

and lucky us

we stumbled on platoon of vc crossing the riv

we brought the swift broadside and opened up with

all guns

my .50s barrel burnt out in that firefight

seems we had a company and our boat had caught

them in the middle

grab gloves twist barrel out

over the side with ya

new barrel..dont have time (sic) to time it

all the way down and back up 5 klics

i think i heard 5

half way thru another box or apit

and the .50 double loaded and backblew

into my face.

i remember thinking that i wish i had a

cigarette

i dont know how long it was

but i remember a dustoff hovering over the boat

and this guy coming down a rope

also think i remember the chopper taking

a couple of rounds

army guy i think

he asked me my name and my age

and i tole him

he said that he was there to take care of me

he asked if it hurt

tole him fuck ya

ok pitch in the leg

dont hurt so bad now

said we couldnt go right now

but that he would take care of me

he had this cigarette sticking outa his mouth

with the longest ash on it

and he was picking the pieces of gumpowder

and pieces of bullet casings out of my face

and i kept waiting for the ashes to fall on me

he pinched me agin in the other leg

asked him for a cigarette

and he said he didnt smoke

and i watched for that ash to drop

took over a hundred itty bitty pieces

outa my face

woke up on hospital ship

danang harbor area

i asked about the medic

doc tole me

didnt know who he was

they dropped me off and

went back to take care

of another guy prolly

damn....i could never had done

what corpsmen and medics done

but i remember them every single day

john stevens
osc usn ret

Added 11/3/96