Mad Minutes were arranged at guard mount or when the sergeant of the guard came around to all the guard positions to relay the start time or the flare signal. Once the signal was given, all perimeter defensive weapons were unleashed outside the perimeter towards “no man’s land”. Technically, it was supposed to last about a minute or when the cease fire was given over the radio. In reality, Mad Minutes continued until every last guard got it out of his system.
Mad Minutes were particularly difficult to stop during Christmas and New Year’s. Even when warned that no Mad Minute would be held, come 0001 hours on Christmas and New Year’s, the unauthorized Mad Minute was executed – Army be damned! Pulling guard duty on one of these dates, Mad Minutes were something awesome to witness. At 0000 hours, every firebase around Camp Eagle and Camp Evans would open up with every weapon available to them. The several firebases in our area of operation could be easily picked out as they unleashed their weapons in celebration of these magnificent holidays. Claymores,1 foogas2 and grenades were not authorized to fire during mad minutes. Everything else was fair game.
Our M-60 machine gunner that night was just days short of his DEROS.3 He got trigger-happy and got carried away on one of these Mad Minutes. Instead of firing in three or four round bursts, he held the trigger down and kept firing. When he exhausted his ammunition belt, he grabbed another belt and continued firing. I stopped firing my M-16 as did others on our guard bunker and became entranced by the sound of our M-60 firing continuously. It was a moonless dark and dreary night. We all gathered around the M-60 and noticed the barrel had gotten cherry red. The rounds were now deviating left and right from center of true. The sergeant of the guard who had heard the continuous firing pulled up in his jeep and joined us at the M-60 which had now ceased firing.
The sergeant of the guard yelled out, “What the hell are you men doing? You just ruined a good barrel! You’re gonna have to reimburse Uncle Sam for the cost of that barrel, soldier.” No one was paying attention to the sergeant of the guard. We were transfixed on the cherry red barrel. Someone said, “Damn, it’s so fucking hot I bet you can light a cigarette off that barrel.” Another guard pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and bent down and lit his cigarette just off the end of the barrel. As he started to pull away from the M-60, a cooked round went off sufficiently scaring cigarette man to jump and fall backwards. Once everyone composed themselves, the main discussion centered on trying to figure out what story we’d have to tell the Supply Sergeant about the warped barrel. Nobody wanted to pay for the warped barrel. We were just having fun and enjoying our Mad Minute.
All six of us walked into the supply room to return our M-60 and leftover ammunition and readied for a coordinated lie. The Supply Sergeant spoke first. “Damn, I heard what you guys did last night. That must’ve been one awesome sight seeing Murphy light that cigarette off that barrel.”
As for the damaged barrel, that was just the cost of doing business. The well-coordinated good lie about seeing enemy sneaking under our perimeter wire was not even needed.
1 Claymore mines have a layer of plastic explosives lining the inside of the curve shaped mine. There are about 700 ball bearings laid into the explosives that fire forward at enemy troops as shrapnel.
2 Foogas (or fougasse) were 55 gallon drums filled with a mixture of 40% gas and 60% oil with several boxes of laundry detergent stirred in. The drum was half-buried pointed at desired angle with 2 claymore mines in back of them. When fired the claymores set the barrel on a huge fireball with the laundry detergent propelling the flames some 30 or 40 meters.
3 Date Eligible to Return from Overseas.. . . On Mad Minutes
“If your unit was on a fire base pulling perimeter guard, at a random predetermined time everyone on the perimeter would open fire as a means of harassment on the Viet Cong not knowing if or when they might be preparing for an attack. One can only imagine what the enemy would think if all hell just rained down on them for 60 continuous seconds." – John Schmidt, Combat medic, Vietnam
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