Either December 1969 or January 1970 I was awoken in the middle of the night by huge explosions in the 605th Company area. The 605th was our neighbouring Company whose area was next to ours, divided by a dirt track. Naturally, we thought we were under attack and an alert was called, weapons were drawn and we all reported to our assigned places of duty.
However, after a few hours, we were stood down. It transpired that the explosions were the result of “friendly fire.” An armed aircraft of D Troop 1/4 Cav, 1st Infantry Div., located on the other side of the base had somehow, through an electrical fault, fired a salvo of rockets that travelled across the base and ended up exploding in the 605th Company area. Fortunately, there were no casualties.