(Part 3 A tribute to Vietnam vets 11/04/2014) But nonetheless, our youthful energy brought defiance from our enemies and felt safe in our homemade camp. We even made friends with local villagers’ and cute little children we called, “little scamps.” Some took advantage of our tender hearts; taking candy and gum from our pockets and such. “Nipper”, my good friend, would clown around with these kids and wrestle and tumble with them; a wee bit too much. At the same time we noticed others staring at us, from a distance, and they weren’t very social. They hid themselves in the darkness of their huts, and in the tops of trees that were very local. We, who were military, thought we were “IT”, friendly and kind and ready for any action that would come our way under the sun. But we weren’t. Suddenly a shot rang out and our good friend Nipper was suddenly bleeding from the neck. We were shocked at what had just happened. Everyone! Big “Moe” snatched his buddy’s body up and we all scrambled for cover. We knew our friend Nipper was dead and the horror reality set in. In spite of friendly people; we were hated for invading their land. Looking up in the trees we saw a sniper over the latrine we built with a roof of tin. Training to kill a dummy in combat maneuvers is one thing; but it’s altogether a different story taking the life of a live human: even if it is your enemy. But at the same time this skin of energy is pointing a gun at you: it’s either you or him. So you take aim with your gun and pull the trigger. The thoughts are sour and lemony. The next two years rang out were explosions and distant bangs guns from both sides. And our wish was not to be here but to be back home working on our hobbies. What was even more devastating and horrifying was when children ran into our camp strapped with explosives on their bodies. As time went on our stay there in Vietnam got worse with the daily fighting and we made the best of it. When we were off duty, we played games and wrote letters back home to our situation out of our minds. Yet the worse was yet to come: the truth was we were all frightened fearing each moment would be our last, we were so young and in our prime.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Nov 2014 11:41:03 +0000
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