Michael Do

Aspirant Lo Duc Tan grabbed my hand, and shouted as he pulled me down to the ground:

– Lie down. Dig in or run to that gravestone. They are shelling the mortars.

The company was approaching Ap Nha Viet. We walked in two columns past a local cemetery and were detected by the enemy’s reconnaissance.

A fresh new graduate from the military school, I was like an apprentice who could not detect the sound of the departing mortar shells from a far distance. I even could not distinguish the sound of the mortar from that of a cannon. In great confusion, what I could do was react to what Tan said.

Boom, boom, boom…

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