Well, I'm not sure that I should admit to this, but on more than one occasion the only cover I had was to lie on my back behind a rice paddy dike that was only about one foot high.
In those instances, the preferred method of returning fire was to prop your rifle on the dike above your chest and head and to spray whatever was in front of you. There were even crazier things than that done in an ambush and friendly fire was a constant threat.
Discipline is reinforced through good training and I can't say that we always had that. One of the worst things about Vietnam was the 12 month rotation. There was no cohesive structure to the unit I was in. By the time someone was there long enough to learn the ropes and really be effective, he was gone and replaced by some new dingleberry.
