Most of the guys I know referred to The Southeast Asia War Games as 23 hours and fifty nine minutes of sheer boredom interspersed with 60 seconds of sheer terror. We (5th Marine Regiment) worked the Arizona Territory. In beautiful Quang Nam Province. We went a few other places as needed but that was our A.O. Fear was lessened by the Brotherhood you had with your fellow Marines. Patriotism and all that went to the wayside after the first time some took a shot at me.
After getting to Vietnam I was in a 'casual company' while they decided where to send me. When I got to my battery E 2/11, I was odd manout, I was an Arty FO (enlisted was called Field Artillery Scout Observer, sounds fancy, eh?) so the higher ups, in their infinite wisdom stuck me on O P (Observation Post) for a week. The second or third night we got a probe (just a few sappers trying the wire) on the OP furthest from me. That was OP 1, I was on OP 3 about 300 yards away but the entire battery opened up. I looked to my partner, there were two up and two asleep at any given time. He was gone. He yells from the fighting hole next to the OP to get the hell out of there, the built up OP was an RPG magnet. Sure as hell wish he had told me this earlier.
I never saw a bad guy, we expended several thousand rounds (the entire battery, plus fired a few Claymores.
I was sort of glad to get in the bush away from that.