There I was in the 1st Air Cavalry marching through the Ia Drang Valley region of the Central Highlands. When we were told we were going to Vietnam, I never pictured it would be like this. Walking through these valleys made us very uneasy. They had tunnels everywhere and the enemy could be within yards of us without us knowing until they poked their heads out. Time after time they popped our of their tunnels almost catching us by surprise. We had managed to kill more of them, than they us. We had inflicted heavy damage on the North Vietnamese. They had over 2,500 casualties while we only had 234 casualties and 300 wounded. Even though we hadn't lost much men compared to them it still had a big impact on us. Those Vietnamese communists took most of my good buddies lives. If one of us was killed there wasn't enough time to grab their body so we just had to snatch the dog tags off their necks. It was so hard seeing my friends being killed and not being able to do much about it. It was almost unbearable to be marching and know that you or yet another one of your buddies could be the next casualty. I still think back to those days and I'm very thankful that it is over and that I made it out alive.