Guns Up! Read Online Free

of advice that might keep them alive. Everyone started asking questions at once. He held up one hand to stop the onslaught.
    “Now listen up. The smartest thing each of you can do is this: When you get to your squad, find a salt, somebody who’s been here awhile. Ask him what you have to know, stick with him, and do what he says. Keep that M16 clean or it’ll jam on ya. If you fall asleep on line, one of your own men might kill you and you’ll deserve it.”
    Twenty questions later we pulled off the road on the outskirts of the city. Sporadic gunfire echoed from somewhere up ahead. An old gunnery sergeant ran by our truck shouting, “Get off those trucks and spread out! Move it! Move it!”
    The trucks turned around and headed for Phu Bai as soon as we were out. The gunny shouted us into two columns, one on each side of the road, with a ten-yard interval between each man. Then he spotted Red. “Red, is that you? It’s good to see you. Boy, do we need a gunner.” He walked over to Red, turned his head, and spit out a shot of tobacco like a major leaguer. Theyshook hands. The gunny lowered his voice to say something only Red was supposed to hear. I heard two words too many: “…   got killed.” The butt of a pump shotgun rested on the gunny’s hip. He wore special bandoliers full of shotgun shells, and small leather pouches full of more shells on his cartridge belt. He looked like my grandpa coming back from a hunting trip in West Virginia. He even spit like Grandpa. I didn’t know the Marine Corps allowed men to carry any weapon other than Marine Corps issue.
    Red followed the gunny to the front of the column, then we started a slow nervous walk down the dirt road. Sweat poured down me like a sticky shower, but a cool breeze blew over my face. Twenty meters later the breeze blew a sickening, rotting odor into my nose. I had the uneasy feeling I had just smelled my first corpse.
    Two hundred meters and a thousand horrible imaginings later we came to a small bamboo hootch. The hut turned out to be battalion headquarters. A quick roll call and we were sent to our respective platoons. I still couldn’t see the city, but the steady pounding of heavy machine guns rang closer. Black smoke billowed above the treetops and into the gray sky, then an explosion. A Phantom whisked by.
    Chan and I followed Red down a well-trodden path with heavy brush on both sides. We came to a small clearing and another hootch. A group of tired, dirty men stood near the grass and plywood huts sipping coffee out of C-ration cans. A tall, lanky character spotted Red first. His pitted face opened into a wide, ugly smile as he ran up with his hand out. He smelled worse than he looked.
    “You big mother!” He shook Red’s hand and slapped him on the back. “Man, you missed some real heavy crap. How was the hospital? Get any Red Cross girls?”
    “It’s good to see ya, Sam.”
    “I thought I heard you out here.” A young officer wholooked as if he were just out of college stood grinning in the door of the hootch.
    “How’ve you been, Lieutenant?” Red gave a casual salute.
    “A lot better now.” The lieutenant came forward with his hand out. They exchanged a quick, firm handshake.
    “Who do you have with you?” the lieutenant looked at me.
    “Boots,” said Red. “0331s.”
    “Outstanding! Sam, take Red and these two down to the chief’s squad.”
    We turned to follow the ugly Sam. I noticed something pinned to his camouflaged helmet cover. Whatever it was, it was covered with flies. I moved closer to get a better look. It was an ear. A human ear. It looked brittle and baked grayish green from the sun. I wanted to ask him about it, but I hesitated, trying to remember his name.
    “Sam,” I said. Before I got another word out, the lieutenant started speaking.
    “And Red, send that stupid mortar man back to mortars before he kills himself with the gun. Break in the boots. They’re your new gun team.”
    “Sam,” I said