I wondered if this was going to escalate throughout the night or was this some sort of mishap or misunderstanding. As soon as the bullets started flying toward me I hit the snow. Face first into a three foot deep soft snow. My M-16 buried at my side would be no good if I needed it. Still lying deep in the snow I flipped over to face my body toward the night sky. The large flakes of snow hit me in my face and it was even harder for me to focus. It wasn’t long before the last bullets rushed past me. Silence was truly golden. I lay quietly for a few minutes in the depth of the beautiful white snow that had just saved my life. I realized as long as the firing had stopped I would be safe. But there was never a guarantee I was out of the woods yet. Suddenly, and without warning, I heard Lt. Lofgren with his commanding yelp call out for me. I arose as quickly as I had dove into the snow. I was just as relieved to see Lofgren and I was to see another day. What in the world had just happened and why was I still in the dark about it.? My answer would come with some concern and a lot of laughter. It seems that Private Larry Birdsong, a native of the great state of Texas, and, as goofy I might add, as a squirrel on crack, was the guard next to me on the guard line. At some point he made his trip too quickly and when he began to go back toward me he saw a figure ahead of him. He was disoriented somehow and thought I was a real intruder inside the camp area. It was me still walking my path toward his starting point. So as instructed, he called the Sergeant of the Guard, who called for the Office of the Guard, and he gave Birdsong a magazine full of live rounds. It was me Birdsong was shooting at. Oh my…what a shocker. If he had been a good shot he would have killed me. Thank God he only made marksman in his rifle training. I would have looked like a sieve had he been good at it. He had emptied the entire magazine of 20 rounds. Of course everyone thought it was hilarious afterwards, but it didn’t get mentioned too many times after the incident. That would have been a report no one wanted to file. I had enough guard duty on the hill. I convinced First Sergeant Lee that it was just too risky for his unit clerk to be pulling guard duty. He agreed and I never pull guard duty again. I don’t think they would have given Birdsong live rounds even in a combat mission. He was more than happy to start shooting.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 23:48:32 +0000
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