The Shot That I Am Glad I Missed

The 106 recoilless rifle was developed as an antitank weapon during the Korean war. In Vietnam if was used for rocket suppression and counter fire. When the enemy launched rockets, as they often did against the Danang complex, the enemy would have fired its rockets and gotten away before artillery could be brought to bear upon them. The 106 was a rifle, not an artillery piece. It was a direct fire weapon. You aimed it and fired it, no complex and time consuming math was involved, which is fortunate since I flunked math in high school.

A 106 mounted on a 70 foot tower had a 369 degree field of fire. Although the maximum effective range of the 106 as an anti take weapon was 1100 meters I used it effectively against rocket attacks from as far away as 5500 meters. It was the most powerful weapon in the Marine infantry arsenal and could be devastating when used against enemy troops like those launching rockets against the US airbase several miles away or attacking the bridge.

I arrived at the bridge crossing and inspected the tower. There was no way that it would support the weight of a 106. It was rickety. I passed the word up my chain of command and was told to stay put with the 106 crew and they would send us a .50 caliber machine gun to use instead of the 106. My squad was needed to support the platoon that had been assigned to protect the bridge. The Browning .50 arrived, and the 106 crew became a heavy machine gun crew. We mounted the .50 on the top of the tower and settled down to our mission of protecting the bridge. We also had an M14 with a starlight scope. We used the starlight scope, a first generation night vision device to scan the surrounding area for enemy movement.

One night as I was looking around, I saw a figure standing in an open field about 200 meters away. The local villagers knew to be inside at night. Anyone outside would be identified by us as enemy and would be shot. Firm rule, no expectations.

I was amazed that the figure stood in the open facing our encampment. What a dumb ass. Although I would not learn about Darwin’s theory of natural selection until I attended college a few years later, this was a perfect example. Any Viet Cong stupid enough to stand in the open near a Marine position was too stupid to remain in the gene pool. Perhaps, I thought, this guy has no understanding of night vision devices.

This was too easy. The figure was just standing there, in the open, about 200 meters away. I could have shot him with open iron sights at that distance with no problem. There was no hurry. I could take my time and I did. I had a sandbag rest for the M14, I could not believe my luck. The figure was motionless. I could have taken a head shot, but opted for the more reliable center of mass shot. An M14 round through the chest is almost never survivable. I put my crosshairs on the chest of the figure and began my trigger pull. I felt the tension of the trigger build and was almost at the point of expecting recoil when the mortar team assigned to the bridge fired an H&I shot. Damn, as soon as the mortar round was fired the figure ran away. I was pissed. I could not have missed. If the mortar round had been fired a second later, my .762 round would have arrived in the chest of the figure at the same time. Oh well.

A couple of nights later, I got the word to keep an eye on the front gate of our compound. Movement had been observed there the night before.

The next night, as I scanned the area with my starlight scope equipped M14, I observed a figure approach the front gate. This was even easier than the figure standing in the open. It was very close. Once again, I lined up my crosshairs on the chest of the figure and started my trigger squeeze. Riflemen will understand when I say that your best shot surprises you. You concentrate on sight alignment and trigger squeeze. You only know that you have fired when you feel the recoil and hear the report. I maintained sight alignment on the chest of the figure and squeezed. Suddenly, the figure turned and ran! There was no reason for that behavior. There was no sound as had been the case when the mortar crew fired its H&I.

Damn again! I cursed my luck at two weird situations in a row that should have resulted in kills but did not.

This time, I decided to take the shot. The starlight scope could not keep up with the movement of the running figure and blurred. As the figure ran, I mentally computed where the person would be, placed my crosshairs there, and fired. I figured I had a 50/50 chance of hitting the running target. The first generation night division scopes were remarkable for their time. One huge problem that they had, was that when you fired, the muzzle blast scrambled them. The were unusable for several seconds afterward. I could not tell whether I had hit my target or not.

A squad was sent out to search. They reported back by radio, no body, no blood, no drag marks. Damn. I missed!

The next night, a couple of guys were assigned to be at the gate to see if the VC returned. Our best guess was that a Viet Cong had been attempting to place a booby trap at the gate of our compound. The two guys at the gate would prevent that and would kill any VC that attempted it.

The next night, I heard the two guys near the gate on the radio. One of them was apparently sending a message to the other. “Don’t shoot, it’s a kid”.

It turned out to be an 11 year old “retarded” girl! I use the term “retarded” because that is the term we used to describe her then. Perhaps she was so traumatized that we regarded her as “retarded”. She had no parents. She had no home. She had no idea that a couple of nights before she had escaped death by a second because of the totally happenstance of a mortar team firing an H&I round. Apparently a rifle round passing so close to her that it must have missed her by inches did not deter her from trying to make human contact.

We brought her into our compound and “adopted” her. Marines wrote home with the unusual request for clothing for an 11 year old girl. She became the Princess of our little compound. She had two dozen “uncles”. She had all the C-rations that she could eat.

In less than a month, we were relieved at that bridge by another Marine unit. We left our princess with the new unit, who adopted her as we had. I often wonder what happened to her.

I also believe in divine intervention. Nothing other than that can explain what happened when twice I was a second away from administering a death shot to an 11 year old girl.

I do not doubt that the figure I first took to be a totally incompetent enemy soldier standing in an open field was in fact this 11 year old girl.

I am a warrior. I have killed enemy soldiers. I have not lost as much as a wink of sleep over that. If the squad that searched the area after I fired at the figure at the gate had reported back that they had found the body of an 11 year old girl, my life might be different. I do not think that I could have put that behind me as a tragedy of war. Although it would have been logically understandable, it would have been hard to live with. I am glad that I don’t have to.

I am glad that I missed.