Tally-Ho Green

Them’s bullets! I thought to myself. And I kept running. When I reached a clump of trees I took cover immediately and started shaking all over. Those bastards are shooting at me and trying to kill me! What seemed like a minute of fear was probably only a few seconds, and then it kicked in. I instinctively raised my M-16 and fired away, emptying the twenty-round clip. Bullets were zinging through the air all over the place. This…was combat! In 1966, the son of a mild-mannered ex-Marine sharpshooter was a manager at an amusement park in San Jose, CA. Warren Weitzel received his invitation from the government to participate in the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. The Army wasn’t what he was expecting, but Weitzel manages to combine his life training with the Army’s training, and survived for a year “in country”. And so here are his observations, good and bad, as a sergeant in a combat platoon.