![]() ![]() "I always won money," Hanson said, laughing. ![]() Hanson and his comrades were able to resume their poker game. An intersection outside the firebase where the enemy had been marshaling forces had become a 13-foot-deep crater littered with body parts. The effect of that power was on display when the sun came up. The firepower was so stunning, Hanson said, that both sides stopped fighting for a moment and turned to look east. ![]() "It came in over the top of us like a freight train." "All of a sudden, the whole world exploded," Hanson told a crowd gathered on board the battleship New Jersey on Saturday for an event to honor Vietnam War veterans. The USS New Jersey, to the east in the South China Sea, trained its 16-inch guns toward the source of Hanson's troubles. What he got was something powerfully different. He radioed for help, expecting artillery fire. Hanson, now 70 and living in Aston, said more than 1,000 enemy soldiers poured out of the jungle surrounding the firebase as mortar and rocket fire whizzed over the concertina wire. Hanson was an Army sergeant in his early 20s during the first of two tours of duty in Vietnam when his late-night poker game was interrupted by an attack on the firebase he was guarding. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |