Keith Friberg

Keith Friberg Keith Friberg turns on U.S., causes loss in Vietnam War Wellington, Florida

23rd of Nov, 2010 by User823819

It was September of 1969. Guerrilla Warfare had become overwhelmingly exhausting beyond imagination in the jungles of Vietnam at this point. The humidity of 100% plus the temperatures over 100 degrees felt like we were inside an oven at all times. Five minutes of sleep per 24 hours was considered a "good" night's sleep. The only thing I wanted to see was the lone picture of my wife and children back at home in Palm Beach, Florida. Things like this never get easier to talk about. But the worst thing out of all the gunfire, explosions, and body parts was the betrayal by my best friend, Keith Friberg. We were drafted together and sent out to South Vietnam by the end of 1968. Keith was liked by most of our platoon. He'd make smoothies in the middle of the night and disperse them to everyone as meal replacements. He had seemed like a great guy. It was only a few days in before people were discovering their wallets were stolen, as well as their ammunition. The only one who didn't have anything stolen from him was Keith, but none of us wanted to believe that he was a thief. Nonetheless, we gave Keith the benefit of the doubt and let it slide. Keith would go on with us in our platoon for the following 14 months and was considered one of the best soldiers ever to set foot in the Marine Corps. Having him on our side was comforting.... a little too comforting. We had Charlie in the palms of our hands, on the verge of surrendering. It was your vintage stand-off gun fire at a range of less than 20 yards. We had the Vietcong outnumbered by about 3 to 1. Bodies were being blown apart left and right. The sound of the explosions had nearly blown out my ear drums. As Keith and I crouched behind a humongous log, Keith leaned in my ear and yelled "Victory is MINE!" I was a little confused why he would say that the victory was "his" when all of us were in this war together. I thought he may had been just losing his mind at this point. Keith all of a sudden pulled out a huge mini-gun! Where he had this thing stashed, I have no clue! This thing was literally bigger than he was. With gun fire blazing from all directions, Keith stood right up and started charging toward the enemy! "KEITH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!" I yelled. Keith ignored, and just kept charging. All gun fire came to a halt, because none our platoon wanted to hit Keith. Keith walked directly up to Charlie face-to-face with not an ounce of fear! After about a 30-second face-to-face exchanged glare, Keith all of a sudden began laughing hysterically! "This guy has lost his mind!" I thought. Keith then held out his hand, and shockingly, the Vietcong guy smacked it and gave him a high five!!! "What in God's name is going on?!" I thought, as I looked at the rest of the platoon, only to find dumbfounded and shocked expressions on their faces as well. Keith then turned around, locked and loaded the mini-gun, and aimed it toward us!!! "HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Keith laughed hysterically. Keith then started unloading shots directly at us. "GET DOWWWWWWWN!!!!" I heard my lieutenant scream. "KEITH HAS TURNED AGAINST US!!!!" I quickly dove into a tiny hole, as I could feel bullets flying by me, just barely missing. As I sat and watched helplessly, all I could see was my entire platoon getting lit up. Arms and legs were being blown off at the hands of Keith's mini-gun. Trees in the distance were being blown apart all over the place. This gun literally turned a jungle into a parking lot. It looked like the scene from Predator when Mac took over on the mini-gun! One by one my friends were getting blown apart, as some of their heads were just exploding right before my eyes. All I could do was just sit there hiding, remaining motionless. The horror of this will never leave my head. I'm lucky enough to be alive today, only because they couldn't see me. When everyone of our platoon was completely wiped out, the last thing I heard was Keith again laughing. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" The following day, President Nixon announced that we had "let victory slip between our fingers", and he ordered U.S. troops to pull out of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. This unfortunate, historical defeat was all because of the betrayal of Keith Friberg.

Track this Report 0 Comment | Post a Comment