Under Fire

Interviewer: And walking up those muddy mountains, were you under fire at those time?
Oh, yes.

Interviewer: So, that's another added part of the adventure?
Yeah.

Interviewer: So, explain to me if you can, describe to me walking up a muddy slope, nothing to grab onto, and you're under fire. What was that like?
It's pretty nerve-racking, but, but as a, as a youngster you really don't . . . It really don't make much difference, no matter where you are, if you're under fire, I guess. It don't really matter where you are. But going up some of these mountains, you're on your belly some of the time. Some of the time, you're on your feet. But when you're under fire, it's, it's scary. Don't ever think it's not scary. I was scared, believe me. Like, when you're under fire, you never know if you're gonna get hit or not. You're hoping you never do. You get down as low as you can, if you happen to be in a slit trench and a, and a mortar bomb comes over, or something like that. You never know for sure until it goes by. You can hear the whistle, and when it quits whistling, you never know where it is. But as long as it's whistling, going over top of you, it's still going. So, you know that you're okay, there. And when they . . . when I was under fire, at sometimes they were rolling, the, the North Koreans and the Chinese, were rolling their grenades and stuff down the hill.

Interviewer: Now, all of a sudden, being young and foolish and adventurous looks different from when you were under fire?
Yeah, you know you're adventurous, but you never realize what you're really getting into. War is hell.

Interviewer: Did you ever get used to being under fire?
You never get used to it. That it happens, but you never, ever get used to it.