THE BUNKER INCIDENT: CHANCE AND SURVIVAL IN VIETNAM

Insights into Vietnam Uncensored

I often write everything, and everyone was out to kill us in Vietnam. Yet, incidents have occurred that represented the strange and unbelievable. Perhaps there appeared so many chances to incur injury and death; any event challenging our mortality represented everyday life.

However, chance events where we escaped death by fractions often came to challenge our mortality. One such incident happened during a rocket attack in which I sought shelter inside a bunker stacked and surrounded with sandbags.

The enemy walked in rockets consistently without damage. They could not control their aim, and the ordinances fell short or went far past our base. Of course, in any game of statistics, the chance of hitting something valuable would occur sooner or later. It is called the law of averages: the more times you try, the greater your chance of success. And the North Vietnamese and Vietcong were relentless if they were anything.

I had come from the shower and was heading back to my quarters when the sirens went off, and a rocket trail appeared overhead. A towel was wrapped around my waist, and rubber flip-flops were on my feet. A nearby bunker, one usually used for card games, stood not more than two hundred feet from the path I traveled.