by William Haight
A few weeks
before the cease-fire, when I was machinegun platoon leader
in E/2/7, we had a couple of FOs from the Fire Direction Center (FDC)
attached to the company -- mostly to direct 81mm and artillery fire.
The battalion's chief cook sent up to the company CP a case of oranges
for distribution to the troops -- a fairly rare treat, since fresh fruit was
in short supply. But the company commander kept the crate of oranges forhimself, although he doled out a few to the occupants of the CP bunker.
A night or so later, the Chinese mounted a pretty strong company-sized
probe, and reached the protective wire in short order. As usual, the
company commander panicked. He got on the horn to the FDC and screamed
"Give us some fire, Give us some illume. They're coming through the wire
and are about to overrun us!"
Crusty old mustang, Captain Sam Goich was the OIC of the FDC, and camly
replied, "Why don't you throw "f---ing oranges at 'em!"
P.S. At the time, we had nearly 20 machine guns -- both air- and
water-colled heavies, plus a couple of tanker's 50s -- on our position. The
goonies never did penetrate the wire.
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