This is Jocko podcast number 455 with Eco Charles and me Jocko willing.

Good evening, Ico. Good evening.

As the Viet Cong initiated their ambush against us, three of the seven men in our

squad were almost immediately wounded, including me.

I was knocked to the ground by a bullet that laid open the back of my leg behind my knee.

I quickly realized I had lost all function and feeling in the leg from the hip down.

One of my machine gunners was shot through the hand, but he was somehow able to continue fighting.

And our platoon chief petty officer was badly wounded in the head,

subsequently losing one of his eyes.

With the reality of the ambush upon us,

we immediately began returning fire

and called for helicopter gun ship support from our

Navy Sea Wolf's squadron who were regularly positioned immediately to come to our aid if

needed. For protection and a better firing position, we all quickly crawled into a

small pond and ditch alongside of a bamboo hooch. We guided our temporarily blinded chief petty officer with us along the way.

This pond and ditch were used by the Vietnamese family occupying the hooch as an outdoor latrine. It was filled with

feces and urine as well as catfish that survived by eating the feces. Extremely thankful for the

protection provided by this man-made trench, the overwhelming smell was

only a minor annoyance.

Within minutes, one of our gun ship helicopters

appeared and began strafing the area in front of us

with its machine gun fire.

...