Fire Attack By Frederick Downs Summary

Written by Frederick Downs, this journal is based on the author as a Lieutenant who documents his experiences in the Vietnam War. It starts off by explaining his perspective as he arrives in Vietnam on the date of September 8, 1967. His first impression of the airfield was that it did not look like a war zone, but he knows that there will be a lot of violence. He is going to go to Pleiku in South Vietnam and the truck driver starts to tell him about the place. After that, Downs is flown to the headquarters of the 3rd Brigade. He later on accompanies a squad on a search and destroy mission. They burn houses and buildings and they capture some of the denizens, believed to be Vietcong. The Lieutenant, after getting used to operating in the military

In need of supplies, Sells order a platoon to get water and to not look for Vietcong under command by Downs. Suddenly, there is a U-shaped ambush. One guy is wounded and another dead. Downs manages to retreat. Another platoon is ambushed, so platoon 3 is trying to help Downs’. Dragon-six captures a Vietcong prisoner. On December 2nd, the 1st platoon is taken to the Firebase. On December 5th, it is decided to leave the Firebase, but Downs questions this saying that they had already got to know the area and why leave now? Downs’ platoon returns to Montezuma and is mobilized south of the bridge. For capturing the Russian mortars, Downs is given a day off. He spends his day catching a flight to Pleiku to see what is there. He notices how poor and dirty the Vietnamese people are and how they are looking through dumps to find scrap metal to pound to make stuff. On December 23rd, the platoon returns to its position on the bridge. The AVRN, Rueto walks out of the defense perimeter for a second and gets shot. The soldiers start shooting at a village and the next day a girl comes out with bullets shot at her. The medics try to evacuate her while Downs and his men do not want to help