Letters From Long Binh: Memoirs Of A Military Policeman In Vietnam

     A good friend of mine, Lou Fantauzzi, is a regular on rat patrol. He has the ins and outs of the assignment down to a science. Last night we patrolled Highway 1A from Long Binh to the Newport Bridge over the Saigon River. Lou was kind enough to point out places I had taken for granted during the daylight hours. The huge rock quarry near the highway for example took on an eerily menacing look in the hours before dawn, as did the many rice paddies scattered along the road. 
     The bustling noisy daytime Highway 1A was quiet as a tomb at night. On two separate occasions during the early morning hours we pulled off to the side of the road to watch firefights in the distance. 
     On one of those times, I gazed in awe as the great gunship Puff the Magic Dragon laid down steady lines of fire from three separate multi-barrel machine guns in support of the ground troops. The red tracer rounds from the ship's weapons weaved about in the dark sky, looking much like garden hoses expelling flame instead of water. Flares illuminated the night and the booming of distant explosions echoed across the shallow water of the rice paddies.