One night on a four man patrol we set up in a village next to a trial. We had hooches full of sleeping families all around us. We were right in the middle of this vill. There was a curfew here and the vill was asleep. No one knew we were there. We had set out a couple of trip flares and a claymore mine. Sgt. Snyder and I were on watch when a trip flair goes off. I hand Sgt. Snyder the detonator to the claymore, I didn't want to kill a villager that may have just left his hooch to take a piss. Sgt. Snyder hands the detonator back to me. Nothing was ever said. We both realized that there was no point in us being right in the middle of the vill. We weren't prepared to take the chance of killing some villager in his or her own back yard who was just taking a piss. We never set up in the vills again. I offend wonder who we let live. Was it a villager, or was it a VC? One thing I know for certain. Provisional Rifle Company, 3rd Platoon, 2nd Squad, never killed any unarmed person while I was there.
I do recall one morning after this incident when we did take small arms fire approaching this same vill. We could of annihilated the vill but we didn't. It appeared that only one person was shooting at us. We worked our way up to the vill and searched it. We never fired on the vill because of all the noncombatants that lived there. They all would of been at risk from our returned fire. We knew most of these people and we believed we where there for them. We took one casualty that day and found nothing. No one informed on the VC that was shooting at us. No one knew anything. I wonder if we should of fired the claymore...
So tell me this. How does that bitch in Seattle get off calling me a baby killer?
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