Body Count

Body count does not specify what kind of body In 1968 during the height of the TET Offensive in Vietnam, the Republic there of, I was platoon leader of the LRRP (Long Range Reconnaissance Platoon). We had experienced enough in-country time to fully satisfy our preconditioned homicidal tendencies and satiate our patriotic fervor and most of the men were marking time waiting for that big freedom bird to carry them back to the land of the big PX.As usual we were holding up our share of the perimeter at Fire Support Base Buell, located in the shadow of a tall hill called the Black Virgin Mountain, or Nui-Bah-Dinh in the vernacular of the natives.Brigade always placed my platoon out in the middle of nowhere, because the Command Sergeant Major noted that my men, me included, were a bad influence on the base camp warriors back at Tay Ninh Base Camp.Perhaps this could be attributed to the fact that we so seldom got back to the safety of base camp, that when we did, we liked to let our hair down.You could take this literally, seeing as how we dressed in tiger striped camouflage uniforms, wore long hair, seldom shaved, almost never bathed, and quite often ate the same fish stinking food as the VC (Viet Cong).Of course, we had a perfectly good reason for being so "un-military" in appearance and hygiene. Our looks and smells allowed us to cuddle up with the enemy on his own stinking terms. We were the special operations soldiers that the Army likes to have around, but hides from public veiw.Unfortunately, the fact that my platoon also led the battalion in article fifteen's (non-judicial punishment), simple assaults, thefts of the good stuff or what we called midnight requisitions), and bar fights, didn't do a lot for our reputation as mild mannered men and pretty much gave the Sergeant Major ample ammunition to keep us away from civilization.But, that's another column altogether. This one is about the Army's one track mind when it comes to following orders.Our latest and greatest order from up on high (Headquarters), concerned the body count. (Meaning the number of enemy killed). We were told that our body count was way down and we had to do something drastic to bring it back up. Obviously headquarters was comparing us with other units and we hadn't turned in high enough body count numbers, real or imagined.Back to the fire base perimeter now. One of my men, I think it was Bongo Belly (we all had strange nicknames), spotted movement about two hundred meters out. After close scrutiny it turned out to be a small deer slowly making its way across our front lines.Fresh venison would have tasted great about that time, so I gave the men permission to open fire. Over the next few mad minutes, several dozen men fired at the small deer with M-16 rifles, M-60 machine guns, and Taco Bender even fired his blooper (M-79 grenade launcher).After the smoke and haze cleared, the little deer casually looked at us as if we were insane, stuck his tongue out at us, and sprinted off into the thick jungle. Well, no venison steaks that night!When the Battalion Commander called to ask what all the fuss was about, I told him that we had spotted what we thought was one each enemy personnel scouting our perimeter and we had scared him off.He asked me if it was a VC (Viet Cong) or NVA (North Vietnamese Regular)? Seeing as how the deer was khaki colored, I told the old man that it was a North Vietnamese Regular.Would you believe it, on the operations report the next morning was listed, "Recon Platoon, one NVA Regular, KIA (Killed in action), add to body count.

By Gene Ladnier [ 25/05/2006 ][ viewed 259 times ]

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