"So that would sum up my worst day and … night. It's amazing what goes through your mind. I don't know. You can almost feel your parents weeping for you because I just thought that was it. It was I reckon intense or--you know, you just had a feeling that was the night you're going to die."
Description of Interview:
David Jones was drafted in 1970 with seven others from their small home town in North Carolina. After basic training and AIT at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Jones was given a two-week break over Christmas, and then deployed to Vietnam as an infantry replacement. He had a week of in-country training and acclimatization at Fort Evans, and then rode in a convoy to Khe Sanh, where Delta Troop, 2/17 was assigned, and where they spent the next month digging trenches and filling sandbags. He describes a sapper attack and the destruction of the ammunition dump on April 2, 1971. He remembers his first bath in three months--in a waterfall. He remembers having the same C-rations meal, ham slices, five days in a row. He remembers Cobras and C-130s and illumination flares and tear gas. And he remembers combat, and his friends on the Wall.
Key Words: Fort Jackson, South Carolina, Coca-Cola, doughnut, basic, AIT, infantry, Phu Bai, Camp Eagle, Camp Evans, 1st Platoon, D Troop, 2/17 Cav (Airborne), Khe Sanh, sandbags, mortars, rockets, Operation LAM SON 719, ARVNs, Cobra gunships, sapper attack, ammunition dump, Life magazine 2 April 1971, Quang Tri, CS tear gas, USO, Donut Dollies, Eagle Beach, L Troop, 75th Rangers, A Shau Valley, RTO (radio telephone operator), Hac Bao
Key Names: First Lieutenant Thomas Chenault, Specialist 4 Michael J. Fitzmaurice, Gary Waterstradt, Merle Haggard, Bob Hope, Lieutenant Bean, Sergeant Allen, Tim Fitzpatrick
Unit:
Delta Troop, 2nd Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division
Service Location:
I Corps, Khe Sanh, Camp Eagle
Read the Complete Transcript of this Interview.