Pressing his cigarette out in the earth, Warren walked to the slit and scanned the jagged hills. He saw no life, but still stood there for a time peering at the unlovely hills, his gaze continually returning to Papa-san. He had come here in order to test himself. While most of his beliefs were still unsettled, he knew that he did not believe in killing. Yet, he was here. He had come because he could not live out his life feeling that he had been a coward.

There were ten men on the patrol which Sergeant Prevot led out that next night. The beaming rok was carrying a thirty caliber machine gun; another man lugged the tripod and a box of ammunition. Warren and White each carried, in addition to their own weapons and ammo, a box of ammo for the ROK's machine gun. Others carried extra clips for the Browning Automatic Rifle, which was in the hands of a little Mexican named Martinez. Prevot had briefed the two new men that afternoon. ``We just sit quiet and wait,'' Prevot had said. ``Be sure the man nearest you is awake. If Joe doesn't show up, we'll all be back here at 0600 hours. Otherwise, we hold a reception. Then we pull out under our mortar and artillery cover, but nobody pulls out until I say so. Remember what I said about going out to get anybody left behind? That still holds. We bring back all dead and wounded.''

At 2130 hours they had passed through the barbed wire at the point of departure. Then began the journey through their own mine fields. Mines. Ours were kinder than theirs, some said. They set bouncing betties to jump and explode at testicle level while we more mercifully had them go off at the head. Mines. Big ones and little. The crude wooden boxes of the enemy, our nicely turned gray metal disks. But theirs defied the detectors. Mines. A foot misplaced, a leg missing. Mines. All sizes: big ones, some wired to set off a whole field, little ones, hand grenade size. Booby traps to fill the head with chunks of metal. Warren tried to shake off the jumble of his fears by looking at the sky. It was dark. Prevot had said that the searchlights would be bounced off the clouds at 2230 hours, ``which gives us time to get settled in position.''