his company commander was this old bastard , been in the navy for twenty-some years and late at night in the office he told these guys this story about how he got out of basic in 67 and got orders to a shore det [ 43 ] in a place called khe-sanh [ 44 ] just a few days before the viet cong or someone surrounded the place for seventy-some days , and this guy had to learn how to shoot because they dont teach you that in navy basic except for shooting some little .22 for one day .