Army veteran Harvey Hilbert was sent to Vietnam in 1966.
One night his company went on a mission in the South Vietnamese jungle.
It was the last night Harvey fought in the war.
Originally aired November 9, 2012 on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Transcript
Harvey Hilbert (HH): It was coming on dusk, and we went into what’s called a hot landing zone–means we were under fire. We jumped off the helicopters and took a position. And then the enemy stopped shooting.
So,my company commander sends out a three-person listening post to go out into the jungle and report back. Usually when that happens they pick the three newest guys.
And one of them was a young man that I had met, and he went about 100 meters or so out in front of the line.
But the enemy hadn’t gone anywhere, and they were embedded in the jungle. And around midnight, they opened fire.
And this three-person listening post was sitting right in the middle of this battalion of enemy soldiers.
They grabbed their rifles and started running toward me. Of course it’s like one o’clock in the morning, and I couldn’t see who was running. All I saw were soldiers with rifles, and machine-gun fire coming at me.
And so I shot at ’em. And one soldier fell about 10 or 15 feet from me and was screaming in pain, and it turned out it was this young man that I had met.
And a few minutes later I got shot in the head. I could hardly move, and I thought that if I fell asleep I would die. So I was trying to stay awake, listening to this young man scream.
He died just before I was airlifted out. You know, I’m 65 years old, and I can remember clearly that young man–the color of his skin, his face, his cries.
You know, there’s a legacy of war that lasts forever.