By Jeff Fewson
Introduction
 When
serving in Vietnam as a Radio Operator with 104 Sig Sqn, I
was detached to the small hamlet of Xuan Loc, manned by US
Military and ARVN soldiers. Xuan Loc was
commonly known throughout the military fraternity as Xray
Lima (XL). My problem started when I purchased a
.45 calibre pistol from an American soldier for a paltry sum
of money.
Unfortunately I had an unauthorized
discharge (UD) with the pistol, which is a very serious
offence and much looked down upon by the military hierarchy.
However it did indeed have a funny side to it as well, at
least I thought so. I will not go into the details of
how it came to occur as it is long and involved but needless
to say the results were earth shattering.
Unauthorized Discharge
It was early morning and my roommate
(can’t remember his name) was laying back on his bunk
opposite me with his hands behind his head looking up at the
ceiling and probably wishing he was back home like we all
did. I threw my legs outside of my bunk still nursing a
hangover from the night before, as we had had a few drinks
with yanks. I picked up my newly acquired .45 from the
top of my kit bag and proceeded to clean it with an oily
rag, which was a ritual, cleaning it with the magazine on
was not a ritual. Being ritualistic, I then proceeded to
cock the weapon, clean it further take a sight picture of
the floor and fire the action, the resulting chaos was truly
fantastic to see and you really had to be there to
appreciate the funny side of it.
The noise in that tiny confined space
was deafening and the room immediately was filled with smoke
and the smell of cordite. When the round hit the floor it
ricocheted into the locker across the way putting several
holes in the folded up poncho liner of my roommate who by
this time had leapt out of bed because a small chip of
concrete had nicked him in the chest drawing a drop of
blood. This and the deafening noise and seeing me sitting
there with a gun in my hand caused him to fly out of the
room into the hallway shouting “he is trying to kill me; he
is trying to kill me”. Absolutely dumb struck I
walked out into the hall behind him still carrying the gun
only to find an American negro soldier just coming back from
the shower with the smallest towel wrapped around him. He
dropped the towel and threw both hands in the air shouting
“don’t shoot man”. At about that time I thought things
can’t get any worse than this so I walked back into the
room, unloaded the .45 and stripped it down. Moments
later an American Sergeant came racing in and collected all
the weapons in the room including the M72 rocket launchers I
had, and beat a hasty retreat. I had M72 rocket
launcher in the room because I was on the Ready Reaction
Force for Xuan Loc. The next thing I hear is him telling
some officer on the phone. “Sir we got some crazy
Australians here trying to shoot one another up”. At
about that time I figured they would try me before sundown
and put me up against the wall at dawn. As luck would
have it they decided not to do that and I was eventually
sent back to Nui Dat to face the music.
Charged at 104 Sig Sqn, Nui Dat
Whilst being charged my roommate was
asked if at any time it really looked like he was trying to
shoot you and from memory I believe he said. “well, he could
have been”. When It came to my turn to speak I said “Sir do
you really think I would not hit him if I was sitting three
feet away with a .45”, not to mention the fact that a rocket
launcher would have done the trick nicely.
Anyway it was indeed an accident and I would never afford
any fellow soldier and mate of ours any harm. To my roommate
I do indeed apologise for the horrific fright he got at the
time and hope he is living a long and happy life.
My reward for creating so much chaos
and mayhem was five days field punishment (eating, sleeping
and working with all my webbing on), of which I only spent
one day doing in the kitchen and was then attached to 1RAR
in the field on an operation. Perhaps they were trying to
get rid of me. (Joking)
Summary
Anyway that is the official version
of what happened in case any of you were wondering and there
is no evidence to the contrary. Live happy and
wonderful lives my old mates.
Jeff (Fewy)
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