Build Your Own Kind of Bunker

In Vietnam everyone built his or her own kind of bunker! In Cu Chi we often received rocket and mortar fire and the best place to be in an attack was in a bunker. The unit had bunkers in the troop area and so in the middle of the attack many people ran to the bunkers for safety. Running in the open was not a really good idea – matter of fact it was a really bad idea. Being caught in the open in a rocket attack could be fatal.

The solution was to have a bunker close by. So many in our unit built their own bunkers. Everyone had his or her own idea about the best approach. All kinds of creative engineering ideas were used.

Pete broke a hole through the wall of his room and then dug under the cement floor and made his bunker there. When the rockets started coming in he rolled out of bed, crawled across the floor and into his bunker. It worked it pretty well.

Perry took the idea of always being protected to a new height. He took sandbags and built a dome over his bunk. It was like an igloo. He slept in his bed, which was also his bunker. When the rockets came in he just pulled the blankets up and rolled over and went back to sleep.

One day when I was walking back to my room I noticed a huge board lying on the ground. It was about seven feet long, twelve inches wide and three inches thick. I talked two friends into helping me carry it back to my room. I placed the board on edge about sixteen inches from an outside wall in my room, fastening it to the legs of my bunk or bed. It ran parallel to the outside wall. Next I placed my bed next to the board. Just outside of the outside wall was a four-foot high sandbag wall. For a rocket or mortar to get me, a rocket would have to land between the sandbag wall and the board in my little sixteen-inch wide ditch. I didn’t have any overhead cover but when a rocket or mortar hits, the shrapnel goes out and up in a cone shape. To finish my little safety bunker I put my air mattress on the floor to cushion by fall into my bunker. On the wall just above my air mattress I placed my steel pot and flack jacket. So after rolling into my bunker I would simply reach up and pull down my steel pot and flack jacket and hold on! Many times I rolled to the right and dropped off my bed into my bunker! It always served me well.

In life we all build bunkers of our own design. We build what we think will fit our needs. We literally build our world around us. We choose where we live, what we do, who we live with, what we are entertained by and everything else around us. In every situation, whether good or bad, we choose how we will respond. We even get to choose how we respond to any situation. We build ourselves! There are those who choose to be happy even when things don’t look good. They build a happy world around themselves. Sadly there are those who build a world of unhappiness and bitterness. The choice is ours to build whatever we choose.