My God watches over me when I wake and when I sleep - ("Safest Place in Vietnam" Part 2)

“CAM RANH BAY, Vietnam- The cluster of buildings that is the 6th Convalescent Center here sits atop a sun-splashed slope on the Cam Ranh Bay peninsula overlooking the South China Sea. At the foot of the slope transparently clear blue waves wash against a sugar white beach that stretches away until it becomes lost in the blue-green haze of the jungled mountains to the north.

It is a place where soldiers come to forget the war, to relax, and to recuperate. Clad in light blue pajamas, they congregate on the beach in small groups. They swim in the warm water, or stroll in the damp sand, or they spread blankets and bask in the heat of the sun in a sky that is almost always cloudless blue. It is a peaceful place. Or, rather, it was.

An hour after midnight, Thursday morning, that peace was abruptly and savagely shattered. A barrage of 107mm rockets streaked upward on the mainland, arced across the bay, and slammed into the air base. At the same time, a small group of Communist sappers cut through the perimeter fence at the north end of the convalescent center and raced through the compound, flinging satchel charges into buildings as they went.” – Pacific Stars and Stripes 11 August 1969 by S. Sgt. Jim White, S&S Staff Correspondent

I remember that night well. I had earned my first Purple Heart from a wound received in an attack on our base camp in Quan Loi on July 20, 1969 (the same day that our astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon) and was in Cam Ranh Bay Convalescent Center recovering. (Recovering can sometimes have its pluses - like when the USO brings beautiful ladies to visit us). Cam Ranh Bay was considered the safest place in Vietnam (I think that may have been a quote from Nixon).

It was around one o’clock in the morning and I was sound asleep. Suddenly, I was wide awake.  It was almost as if someone had shaken me or called my name.
I raised up in my bunk and looked around. It was quiet and dark, no one moving down the two rows of sleeping patients in the ward. Suddenly at the far end of the ward, the door opened and I saw a Viet Cong (VC) throw something into the ward and on the bunk of a patient. The charge exploded as I rolled out of my bunk onto floor. I could hear machine gun fire outside and began to crawl toward the door at my end of the ward. As I crawled out the door, a foot landed near the side of my head and then on the other side. As I looked I saw a VC running toward the next ward and throwing a charge. The charge went off about ten feet from me and rang my bells (loud sound attacking your ears, for those not familiar with the term) real good. Have hearing loss and continuous ringing in my ears as a result of that explosion. The VC machine gun fire was coming from the center of the compound where we normally formed up for roll call each morning. I continued to crawl around the side of the ward, where I joined other soldiers as we crawled into a culvert pipe. We managed to form up on the other side and ran to the arms room to get some weapons. Initially, we were told we could have weapons because we were patients, but with a little convincing, we were issued weapons. By this time the attack was over and the VC had fled back into the night. Myself and some of the other patients pulled guard duty that night. I guess I had not learned to duck properly with my first Purple Heart, I received my second Purple Heart that night. The center was attacked again not long after that, but that’s a story for another time.

When I was young I had gone to the altar at the Fulton Ave. Baptist Church and asked God to come into my heart. As the years had passed, I had drifted away from the church, but God had not drifted away from me. I believe that it was God who called my name and shook me awake that night. He still had plans for me and people’s lives that He wanted me to influence or be influenced by. I came back to Him during a revival at another Baptist church after Brenda & I were married.