Two days after the "druggie" jumped out of the chopper, we were on patrol and entered a thick grove of trees and walked into a small clearing. Our Lt. told 2 guys to go down a small but distinct trail to check out a bunker at the end of it. The first guy stayed on the trail but I saw that the second guy was going to step off a few inches to the left and started to say " Don't step off the trail" but only got out "Don't step...." and was actually looking at his left foot as the explosion went off. I instinctively turned away and dived to the ground but you can't react fast enough and I took a small piece of shrapnel in the right side of my face. Six other guys were also slightly wounded with a couple needing medical attention in the field hospital. The guy who stepped on the booby trap was killed and was from Delaware - he had served one tour in Nam as a truck driver and returned home, got into some kind of trouble, and had the judge give him the choice of rejoining the Army or going to prison. His decision turned out to be a death sentence. When the med-evac chopper arrived, we had to make the decision to either carry a 200 pound body several hundred yards or to try to get the pilot to land in the small opening. I thought the clearing was large enough for the Huey to land so we popped the smoke grenade to mark our position. The pilot came in without hesitation and barely got into the clearing... the ends of the big rotor were hitting banana leaves on both sides of the opening - no room to spare. Those pilots were amazing.
Clover, I always appreciated those young Army Warrant Officers that flew hueys. These guys were fearless and quite frankly took a lot more risks than some of the older and wiser veteran pilots. It might not have been good for their health, but they saved a bunch of lives.