Rifleman Ed Blanco is, at the time, a young man not yet old enough to buy a beer at a bar. He is however old enough to fight for the freedom of a country. He is old enough to kill or be killed. He is a soldier in the Vietnam War, part of Tet Offensive in 1968. He has lived through it and returned home to the United States. He will tell his story in a book titled Pieces, soon to be released. This is one of his stories, titled "A Messy Business". His story recalls his first experience fighting in a populated village rather than in open land.
Blanco's platoon is point, in the middle of the action. They are in the villages on the fringes of Phan Thiet just southwest of the city cemetery. They find that fighting in populated areas is different than in the mountains. This is their first time fighting in a populated area. There are civilian casualties here. They all know and understand this chilling fact. As a hardcore grunt put it, "If you went in there worrying about women and children, you couldn't do your job" (Edward Blanco, 2000). .
They approach an inconspicuous section of huts and the enemy open fire. Blanco's platoon retaliates and moves forward into the village. They see a peasant get wounded by their M79 grenade and Blanco and his friend Gunner bandage his most severe wound and move on with the platoon. Blanco's friend, Schultz, moves into a hut and when he hears movement he instinctively fires, killing a monk hiding behind a table. Schultz has no time for remorse as they advance further into the village passing two more wounded civilians. .
As they move, Blanco hears crying coming from inside a hut. He goes over to investigate and inside he finds a dead old woman with a bullet hole in her head surrounded by hysterical children. Blanco describes his reaction by saying, "The dark anger welling up inside me became suppressed rage" (Edward Blanco, 2000). As they proceed onward they pass two dead VC.
