overladen paratroopers the parachute having opened offered a brief respite to the noise and bustle.

Warm air relieved a slight feeling of airsickness after the cramped ninety-minute flight from Hanoi's Bach Mai military airfield. Searching for the red smoke marker, Steele attempted to direct his 'chute. He drifted towards the rendezvous area marked out for the elements of the French Foreign Legion Heavy Weapons and Pathfinder sections.

### Steele was part of the Pathfinder section which was to set up the drop zone for the 1 Battalion de Parachutistes Etrangere scheduled for the following day.

### His trained eye picked out groups of enemy forces rushing to man anti-aircraft guns. They formed into defensive perimeters, taking up prepared positions.

Judging he was approximately fifty feet above the rice paddy, Steele pulled onout of here." Taking a swig from his canteen, Steele felt the warm glow of the vintage cognac seeping through his body. He had "lost" his way back to the airfield. Finding himself in the officer's mess, Steele could not help himself liberating a bottle of vintage cognac from their well-stocked drinks cabinet. "Polanski look to the left. I thought I saw a group of Viet's near the tree line."

Looking over the parapet, Steele scanned the immediate front from left to right. Polanski helped Kiwi throw the bodies of the dead into a ditch filled with putrid water and rotten compost. Out of his peripheral vision, Steele noticed a sudden movement among the corpses floating in the murky pool.

He kept his eyes on the tree line but waited