I lie back on a submerged rock. Only my face is out of the water. The sun is warm on my face. I close my eyes and relax. The soothing roar of the waterfall makes me sleepy.

After our bodies are clean we sit in the sun in our wet clothes. We watch as Commander Be Dan builds a sand castle on a rock. A flat rock is a VC desk. The sand castle is a "U.S. Combat Fortress." The Commander uses stones and twigs to mark key positions, the mine fields, the heavy machine guns, the strongest bunkers.

The target, explains the Commander, is a Special Forces compound being used as a base of operations by a secret unit of Nungs--Vietnamese of ethnic Chinese origin, mercenaries who fight under CIA control. The Nungs have been attacking Montagnard villages while disguised as North Vietnamese Army troops. This is a CIA propaganda ploy to induce the Montagnards to join the fight against the liberation forces. Our mission is to destroy the compound.

Commander Be Dan tells each fighter precisely what his or her personal responsibility will be during the battle.

My assignment is to talk to the compound defenders to keep them awake all night before the attack. I will not be in the assault forces because I have not earned the right to carry a weapon, because I am too tall and would confuse the fighters, and because I have a minor wound on my leg. I will remain with Master Sergeant Xuan's rear-guard force, which will cover the withdrawal of the assault troops.

Truong Si Xuan gives me a look that says he is disgusted to be saddled with me, a freak American surrenderer, excess baggage, some kind of silly publicity stunt, a fucking tourist.

Master Sergeant Xuan is a thin man, all bones, muscles, and sinew. He is about seventy years old but looks like he could run up mountainsides all day with a water buffalo on his back and spend the night breaking bricks with his head. He's a tough motherfucker from way back, with ugly shrapnel scars all over his face. He always gives orders to his troops in a threatening tone, as though he'll kill you on the spot if you even hesitate.

After detailing the battle orders, Commander Be Dan invites everyone to make comments or criticisms. We rehash the plan for an hour or so, until every fighter is in agreement with what is to be done, and how. I point out that the Americans string barbed wire to funnel attack troops into mine fields. The fighters nod their approval of my information, but, as usual, they already know about that. Some changes are made in the plan, based on comments from the fighters. Now that the attack plan is set, discipline will be strictly enforced.

"HOAN HO!" we say--"Hurrah. Let's go!"

As the section saddles up I slip off into the bushes, looking for a place to pee. I do a quick about-face when I see Nguyen Hai, one of the Nguyen brothers, sitting with his back against the base of a tree, eyes closed, mouth open. One of the Phuong twins is with him. Her head is in his lap and is bobbing up and down.

Thinking about the advantages of a coed war, I hurry back to the section, giggling like a teenaged kid--which I am.

We hump down and down, and then we're in a haunted mangrove swamp. Set close together and rooted in smelly water stand hundreds and hundreds of scaly, pale green tree trunks. The smelly water is like sewage mixed with vegetable scraps and inhabited by poisonous snakes.

We are very careful in the swamp because the craters from B-52 lake-bombs are invisible under the waist-deep water. A fighter humping a full load of gear can suddenly sink twenty feet.

As we leave the swamp we see smoke. Black smoke. Too much smoke for cooking fires. We see red fire on the horizon.

We double-time.

Within minutes we hear small-arms fire, scattered, unopposed. Then we hear screams.

Commander Be Dan recons the ville with his field glasses, sends Master Sergeant Xuan to the left with one squad and Song to the right with another, with orders to attack when they hear firing. I stick asshole-to-elbow with Master Sergeant Xuan.

As the section converges upon the Montagnard village we see maybe fifty men in khaki shirts and shorts, wearing small brown pith helmets and North Vietnamese rank insignia, their uniforms and weapons camouflaged with fresh leaves and twigs.

Nungs, disguised as North Vietnamese Army soldiers, are burning the village, killing the men, raping the women.

We come in fast and open fire at the Commander's order: "Ban!"

The Montagnard huts sit on short stilts. The Yards wear loincloths. The men are scrawny and have bony chests. The women are bare-breasted and sickly. The children have bloated bellies due to malnutrition.