SpringfieldNewsSun.com

For most of the soldiers it was the same.

After the first days of

combat, concern about

geopolitics, war strategy and everything else faded into the background.

Looming large was what Martin Bronston identifies as the primary focus of the individual soldier's war: "to protect yourself and the other guys with you."

"Most of the time you're eating out of another guy's containers and drinking their water and sharing a toothbrush and a change of socks," Bronston said.

But racial friction among soldiers serving in Vietnam did arise "every now and then," he said.

And Bronston said it may have been inevitable, given that soldiers went into combat weighted down not only with their backpacks but with worries about the health of family members back at home or Dear John letters they'd received from girlfriends.

Still, one racial run-in at Khe Sahn surprised him.

With "all the battles we'd been through," he said, he was shocked to see a Cpl. McIntosh

post a "No N-words" sign on the front of his bunker.

Making sure McIntosh

was out of it, Bronston and a Sgt. Black tossed hand grenades into it, creating a mess.

McIntosh soon redug his hole and was ordered to post no more signs.

Bronston said he took an additional step: "I didn't speak to him any more."

The second incident, at a place called The Rock Crusher,

led to the barrel of an M-16 being stuck into Bronston's chest.

It was over water.

Well, partly over water.

As a part of camp duty, "every guy was required to carry five gallons of water for your squad and five gallons for your platoon."

It could be done "any time you wanted to," he said.

But it had to be done, and one of his fellow Marines was refusing to do it.

Being a non-commissioned officer, Bronston couldn't give him a direct order, but he could enforce the orders as they were given, which he did.

The Marine again refused "and he called me that name."

So Bronston told the Marine to dig a 6-by-6 hole, which he did. Shown the hole, Bronston then asked him if he was ready to get the water yet.

When he said no, Bronston kicked a nearby frog into the hole and told the Marine to give it a proper burial. When that was done, he ordered him to "find the damn frog."

The Marine eventually found the frog, "and I just left him alone," Bronston said.

The next morning, the Marine came calling to

Bronston's tent.

"When I pulled back the flap, he stuck an M-16 in my chest" and proceeded to call Bronston numerous names, Bronston said.

Bronston said he can't recall the name of the Marine who confronted him.

"But I know the guy that knocked him out, and that was Rucker."

The blow was delivered with the butt of a rifle.

After he came to, "I don't know if (an officer) shipped him out. I never saw him again," Bronston said.

As it turned out, the safety of the M-16 had been on throughout the argument, so the chances of its discharging were small.

Bronston said the incidents haven't lessened his sense of connection with his brothers in arms of both races. But he's not forgotten them, either.