"Interminable waits in night ambush positions, chest-deep in water, vigils that often ended in boring and uneventful returns to base, but sometimes culminated in a sudden flash of exploding claymores and grenades. The impenetrable blackness illuminated by streams of tracers from the Stoners and M60s.
The Rung Sat Special Zone, the Forest of Assassins, was composed of extremely dense vegetation, double-canopy jungle, numerous streams and swampy terrain. The VC and NVA troops used it as an R&R center and troop staging area. We liked operating there because we made enemy contact, and contact resulted in enemy deaths... and that was the epitome of success.
We didn't question our participation, we were only concerned in hunting the enemy in the waterways, where we ambushed them time and again... right in his own backyard.
There are no true cynics, pessimists, scorners or complainers in the teams. We set silently, no complaints, for hours after hours, enduring the swarms of insects, waist-deep mud, muscle cramps, thirst and the unrelenting heat of the jungle.
The payoff was springing sudden death upon the elusive enemy."
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