An air strike using CBUs (Cluster Bomb Units) in support of a Big Red one unit. The photo was taken through the canopy after pulling up from the bomb run by then-Captain Mark Berent, who was kind enough to share the photo with me.

As you can tell by the photo, CBUs (we referred to them as "butterfly bombs", because the outer case split open like a cocoon, discharging the bomblets) did a lot of damage. They could be very effective anti-personnel weapons. The problem was that some of the bomblets did not explode on contact if the hit a soft surface. We frequently found unexploded bomblets in the jungle while on patrol, sometimes used for booby-traps by the enemy. I found the same situation during Gulf War I, when I interviewed casualties as part of a medical R&D team. Many of them were wounded, and some killed, by our own cluster bombs, due to the fact that the bomblets frequently did not detonate on contact with sandy surfaces. Consequently, they were run over by vehicles, stepped on, or handled by soldiers who didn't recognize the danger.

Mark Berent served in the Air Force for more than twenty years, first as an enlisted man and then as an officer. He has logged 4,350 hours of flying time, over 1,000 of them in Combat. During his three Vietnam tours, Berent earned not only the Silver Star but two Distinguished Flying Crosses, over two dozen air medals, the Bronze Star, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, and the Legion of Merit.

He is the author of several books and a frequent guest speaker on aviation.