INCOMING

[JR]

I remember coming back into Camp J.J. Carroll very late one night after being out on a two-week long "snoop and destroy" mission up in the Quang Tri Province (DMZ area)near Khe Sahn and the Rockpile areas. We had made radio contact with the rear and told them we were coming in and then we worked out way up the mountain and through the wire. We were 'dog tired' after being on foot all day and all night to get back and when we got inside the wire we just found us a place to pitch our "hootches" up and laid down and went to sleep. After about an hour or so of very sound sleep, we were awakened by the most god awful series of explosions you ever heard. They were so powerful it knocked our poncho hootches right down on top of us. Everybody was hollering and screaming "INCOMING" and we were trying to get untangled fromt he hootches and find our weapons to get into a foxhole. Then this really weird sound followed the explosions, and we realized it was outgoing shells!! We stood there for about 30 seconds and then it happened again. Nearly busted our ear drums and it also knocked us down on the ground. We finally came to realize that when we came back into the camp that the Army had moved in some 175MM "Long Tom's" in and we had pitched our hootches up right under the end of the muzzles!!! When those damn guns went off it was like the end of the world!!! Scared the crap out of us. It didn't take us long to pick up our gear and move to another location away from those big boys. Aint' nobody can get a decent nights sleep under the end of one of those muzzles, believe me. The next day my muscles hurt me like I had been punched, and beat on, all night long. I know it was from the concussion off of those 175's. From then on, when we came back to a camp after dark we made damns sure there had not been any changes in the positions of artillery while we were gone.....and no new guests!! Those Army boys sure had a good laugh on us the next day though. But, we were sure glad to see those big guns go to work.....