One type of mission our unit regularly went on in Vietnam was ambush. This particular misson we were to stop night use of the main hwy between Saigon & Long Binh. This was like setting up an ambush on I-80. We were told not to blow-up the road, it would slow down daytime traffic.
Around midnight we see a lone headlight coming, heading for Saigon, we let him get into range & then opened up on that little motorcycle with our M16's & (2)M60's. Tracers went thru his spokes & ricocheted all around his head. He kept at full throttle until his tailight faded out of sight. This was kinda embarrassing, & not the kind of thing to enhance an infantry platoons warrior reputation. Vowing to do better next time, we waited.
About an hour later, 2 spaced out single headlights approached from the same direction. When the first one got into range, the same thing happened. We must have fired 1/2 of all our ammo at that guy. The sky turned red with muzzle flashes & tracers, to no avail. Our whole effort was only rewarded with a slight wobble to the tailight as it faded out of sight. The third guy could see what just happened & stopped. He turned around & went back the other way for a couple hundred yards & stopped. His headlight slowly turned back around & he sat there for a couple minutes. His desire to get to Saigon was more than his respect for our platoons marksmanship & he decided to go for it!
I don't know if it was out of respect for the guy's bravery, or fear that we would all miss again, but our platoon Sgt called 'stand down' & let him pass. Everyone swore to secrecy & I never heard that night mentioned again.