© Ray
Curran
A Coy 2nd Tour |
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It was the 24th December
1969. Yes, it was Christmas Eve. I was a member of A
Company and at about 2200hrs (10pm) an aircraft flew
over playing Christmas Carols through its loud
speaker. We all had our ration of beer and no doubt
were all in Christmas cheer when someone decided to
fire off an M72 illumination round. Well that lit up
the immediate area turning night into a sort of half
day! "Who fired that weapon!" the CSM, WO2 Bob
Armitage demanded to know. The silence was
deafening, nobody owned up to firing anything! "Well
it better not happen again." he roared. Well, boys
will be boys; after all what could be done? They
couldn't send us to South Vietnam as we were already
there!
About
15 minutes later, we held an 'O' Group (Orders
Group) and it was decided to fire off an
illumination round at 1, 2 and 3 Platoon lines
simultaneously! When that happened the look on the
CSM's face was priceless, he just turned away
muttering something to himself. As the night
progressed there were a succession of flares going
up all over Nui Dat!
It
was a Christmas Eve I will never forget, and one
that I often tell what we got up to and it always
gets a laugh.
TALES FROM THE TIGER
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