10 Things We Learned During Our First Firefight

What I learned from my first Air Assault fire fight is, I answered my own question, "Will I freeze up"? No, I didn't. I pulled the trigger on that M-60 and fought back. The next thing I realized is that the enemy were little men, but big enough to kill you. They died the same way our own troops died. The next thing I learned is, Soldiers really do get shot up and some die. I learned that, when I had to help load the bodies on the floor of my chopper. I answered my second question. Will I be able to wrap my hands around a dead soldiers body and pull him on board? I did that. My third question was will I throw up after seeing all the carnage and the blood running out of my ship while we were in the air? No I didn't. My next question was, will I pick up any KIA that was just on my ship when we dropped him off at the combat zone. Yes we did. He was the last KIA we loaded on our ship. He had been shot in the head, between his dull, listless blue eyes. He had red hair and freckles. He had on a new gold watch, I suppose he got from his parents, for graduating hight school. His boots were new and still black and green. I wondered how his parents would handle his death. He looked so young, and was a handsome guy. I still think about him staring at me as we were on our way to Pleiku to drop off all seven KIA's. When we got back to the Golf Course that night, we had to wash all the dried blood out of the ship, and scrub the floor so it wouldn't attract flys and smell bad. My question was, will I be able to sleep that first night. I did, and didn't have nightmares.
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Nothing can prepare you for your first firefight.
Training can only teach you so much. There are certain things that you can’t understand unless you’ve lived it. Surviving a firefight is one of those things. The tension is high, and adrenaline fuels your every move. Every moment is life and death as grenades fly and bullets whistle past your ears.