After packing their guns and donning camo and ghillie suits, a group of freshman boys drove to Bing Field in St. Charles for an Airsoft reenactment of the Battle of Khe Sanh, a 1968 battle of the Vietnam War.

Those attending the event were divided into two teams, with leading “officers,” who relayed instructions to their “troops” via walkie-talkies.

“One side was the Viet Cong and the other side was the U.S. Marine Corp,” freshman Wyatt Lear said.

“The Americans consistently lost the battle that we were supposed to have won. We defied history,” freshman Derek LeBeau said.

In the battles, the boys use fake weapons such as smoke grenades and wooden tanks to defend or to attack, depending on which side they were on.

“I pulled one of those smoke grenade and caught my pinkie on fire. My finger turned completely black,” Lear said.

“It was your fault. You put your finger completely over the fire,” freshman Nick Hackmiller said.

“All I know is te smoke from those grenades was nasty, it tasted like year-old peas,” Lear said.

The grenades, were only useful if they were actually used against the other team, and not  simply dropped by little kids on their own side.

“They would and end up impairing everyone,” LeBeau said.

Paul Brown, who drove the boys to Bing Field at 6 a.m., was surprised by the amount of younger kids attending the event.

“What really shocked me was seeing these little kids with guns cussing like sailors,” Brown said.

Besides weapons provided by the fields, those in attendance brought Airsoft guns, highly detailed firearm replicas that shoot plastic pellets.

“These are not cheap guns. These are $100 to $300 guns,” Brown said.

The guns shoot at 500 feet per second, about half as rapidly as a real .22 rifle.

“These guns are pretty close to the real thing. You can’t shoot people point blank in the head, but some people still came away with bullet holes in their face anyway,” Brown said.

Luckily, there were no serious injuries.

“There was one time when I lost my shoe in the deep mud and went back for it, getting pelted (by Airsoft bullets) the entire time,” Hackmiller said.

Besides wrongly planted “mines,” an unfollowed honor code, accidental friendly fire and one broken gun, the day went very smoothly.

The troops went home satisfied, having been given the chance to be a hero, even if the battle was fictional.

“I wasted the entire other team by not even aiming,” Lear said.

“We lost the round dude,” freshman Kevin Donahue said.

“Whatever,” Lear said. “What matters is that we went to ‘Nam and kicked some booty.”