Hill 327 had two clubs, one for junior enlisted and one for Sergeants and above. We would drink $.25 beers and watch a John Wayne war flick outside the club overlooking the Valley. Real firefights would spring up on either side of the screen so you could watch the movie or the real fire fight. Tracer rounds would race across the rice paddies. Puff the Magic Dragon, a large slow airplane with impressive fire power would come on to the scene and pulverize the bad guys. The guns on Puff fired so fast that it was a continuous sound. Sometimes bombing strikes and artillery would add to the mix.

Occasionally some poor NVA would be caught out in the open below our Hill. Helicopter gunships and fixed wing aircraft would swoop in and fire on these luckless...