When Gilbert “Gib” Ramirez was a U.S. Navy Sea Bee during the Vietnam War, he worked all day in tropical heat building projects, including a bridge and a hospital.
Often he couldn’t sleep at night.
Overnight enemy Viet Cong gunfire disrupted Ramirez’ sleep. VC guerrillas would irregularly fire weapons to wake American soldiers and sailors at the base at which Ramirez was posted.
Sometimes the American answering fire grew to thousands of rounds of automatic weapons fire, Ramirez recalled.