His First Time Smoking Pot Ended in a Firefight 😳
An 18-year-old soldier tries marijuana for the first time while deployed, encouraged by fellow soldiers in a bunker. He gets picked up by helicopter while still buzzed and is immediately dropped into an active firefight involving napalm strikes from fighter jets.
Summary
The speaker recounts a wartime experience from when he was 18 years old and had never smoked pot before. While deployed, a helicopter drops him off at a unit where soldiers are in bunkers drinking whiskey and smoking marijuana. They encourage him to try it, reasoning that he might die in combat the next day anyway. He smokes pot and feels good about the experience, joking that he might sign up to stay with the artillery unit. However, his ride back to his original unit arrives quickly. Still buzzed, he staggers out of the bunker and gets back into the helicopter. Upon arrival at his unit, he realizes the shooting has not stopped as he expected. Instead, he finds himself in the middle of an active firefight. The intensity escalates dramatically as the military calls in F-4 Phantom jets to provide air support. The Phantoms fly extremely low and drop napalm on the enemy position. The speaker witnesses the devastation firsthand, describing how some enemy combatants run out of the burning area, only to be shot.
Key Insights
- Soldiers encouraged the speaker to try marijuana by reasoning that he might die in combat the next day anyway, using mortality risk as justification for drug use
- The speaker was dropped by helicopter into an active firefight while still intoxicated from recently smoking pot
- F-4 Phantom jets were called in as close air support and flew low enough that the speaker could see the pilots while dropping napalm
- Enemy combatants who escaped the napalm strike were shot by friendly forces as they ran from the burning area
- The speaker expected the firefight to be over when he returned to his unit, but combat was still actively occurring
Topics
Transcript
[0:00] Chopper drops you off with these already guys. We'll come back and get you when the heat goes down on your unit. And I'm still 18 years old. I've never smoked pot. I get off and I'm standing alone. It's like guy in the desert cuz they're all in their bunkers. And I go down in the bunker and they've got music playing and they're drinking. They've got whiskey and they're smoking pot. And they said, "Hey, you might go back out the bush and get killed tomorrow, man. At least know what pot tastes like." So, I tried it and I'm thinking, "This is a pretty good way to spend the war. I'm just going to sign up…
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