The date is 1973.  Two years before the US troops pull out of Vietnam.  Sgt. Beety and his platoon had just been flown into the heart of the jungle.
Smokes (Sgt. Beety) yelled "Let's move out."  There was a platoon of twenty and they were all scared, mostly because their friends had gone in but not come out.
             Most of them weren't there of their own free will, they were drug addicts, criminals that had the chance of going to jail or fighting the war.  Some of them were drifters.  There were guys who served with the army because the army gave them free food, training and education.  They had to pay them back by fighting in the war.
As they were walking through the dark misty forest, Smokes said "Watch out for the trip wires."  Just as he finished the sentence a young, well-built black soldier heard a click and within a half a second later a huge red, orange and yellow flame enveloped him. Another second and it was gone and everywhere they looked, they saw purple dots. The young soldier was in such pain that he couldn't even scream. His stomach was pumping blood and there were trickles of sweat running down his face.  His eyes were so wide open that you could see the whites of his eyes.  Then he said a last few words "I don't want to die" and his eyes closed gently and the white was gone from his eyes. Smokes said "We don't have time to bury him so drag him under that bush over there and take his ammo'. We can't let the enemy find him."
The rest of the platoon thought it was harsh but they know also he was right.  Having done that they said a Hail Mary and moved on.  There was silence for a few hours.   They were now five miles from their destination.  Their mission was to get to the enemy camp, rescue the nine prisoners there, try to destroy the base and then get a chopper back home.
That night around 11.30 p.m. they arrived at their destination.  Smokes said "Right men there is 19 left - I want 3 to a fox hole and I want 2 up the trees.   I want one to come with me."  So by half twelve they were ready to roll.   It was another dark, damp and misty night.
           They had everything ready so Smokes and his man moved out.  They darted over to the prison cell.  Smokes whispered in and called "Dave."  After a few minutes Dace woke up. Smokes told him to wake up his pals and pull their bunks to the ground gently and lay behind them because he was going to shoot an R.P.C. at the wall and to follow him.  Dave woke up his pals and they did what he said.  Two minutes later there was a huge bang and the wall was gone.
They all jumped out and followed Smokes.  They jumped through the fence and down into the fox holes.
The alarm went off and you could here the troops approaching.  One of the men jumped out of the fox hole and threw a grenade.  Six men quickly dropped to the ground!
But that was nothing because there were many more.  The men in the five fox holes stopped firing.  The enemy split up and went behind them.  The men in the fox holes didn't know this but the two men up in the tree did.  They opened fire and the enemy at the back was gone!  Smokes called in the air-force and they bombed the place out.  Very soon the chopper arrived and brought them all home.