Tim Healy was in service from June 1969 through December 1970. He held positions as an infantryman as well as a company clerk and progressed to the rank of sergeant during his tenure in Vietnam. Mr. Healy’s participation in Vietnam was cut short when he sustained an injury from enemy mortar fire, action which earned him a Purple Heart. The following is a vignette based on an interview that took place on May 26^th 2002.

Always Double Check

Today Happy Valley could be an ideal setting for a vacation resort aimed at western travelers. Against the backdrop of lush green foliage, a building could rise out of, yet blend in with, the scenery. The resort could have five star chefs cooking world-class meals. Tiger lilies could cascade over faux waterfalls that could flow into a large basin below. That basin would serve as a swimming area for the resort’s guests. Thirty-three years ago, however, that was not the case. In Happy Valley there were no buildings and the only cuisine that was available was heated over canisters of sterno. There were, however, western travelers. They were American soldiers.

Tim Healy was in Happy Valley thirty years ago, and he wasn’t on vacation. After all, the valley was the site of significant Vietcong activity, and that’s why he was there. One day Tim and his company stumbled across a cache of Vietcong ammunition. They decided to destroy it because, as a well-known principle of war dictates, to destroy the enemy’s resources is to give them less to shoot you with. To destroy the ammunition, the men had to blow up the cache. C4 was employed to achieve this task. After placing the C4 on the ammo cache, Tim attached the blasting cap and a minute and a half’s worth of fuse to the package.

Tim carried quite a load of equipment with him. In addition to the standard M16 army issue weapon, Tim also liked carried an M72 anti-tank weapon. Although tanks weren’t a problem in Vietnam, because North Vietnam had none to employ against the South, Tim still liked to have one with him. After all, as any big gun should, it made a very loud noise, which could be very useful for scaring off the enemy. Tim also carried trip flares, a Claymore anti-personnel mine, grenades, smoke grenades, food, as well as ammunition for his weapons. With such a hefty load to carry, you wouldn’t want to run from a bomb. That would be twice as dangerous because you could injure yourself before the bomb exploded; and close proximity to the C4 package would only be exacerbated your wounds.

So the men walked away and took cover wherever they could find it and waited for the explosion. Nothing happened! They listened and waited, but still nothing happened. They began to get restless, but remained stationary. Plastic explosives, like most things, don’t always work, so all the men knew that if the explosion didn’t happen soon, one of them would have to back and see what was wrong. The risk, of course, was that the bomb could conceivably explode while you’re trying to figure out why it hadn’t exploded in the first place.

It was the Lieutenant that finally broke the silence, “How long was that fu…”. The Lieutenant never finished his sentence; the cache had exploded and relief washed the men.