When youre in combat, the war never takes a holiday off. Holidays were the worst and it was almost Thanksgiving. Away from the family for the first time and the monsoon rain came down as if it was crying for all of us to be home. Misery was just that during the holiday. Carrying my M-16 to go to work again and just to think everyone was back home enjoying a turkey dinner and all the trimmings plus the traditional football game. But here we bowed our heads to give thanks for another day to live. The Army tried their best to make it a holiday atmosphere but we all knew it wasnt the same without family. Plus the NVA cut off our supplies of turkey and other staples. But the cooks were able to give us a Roast Beef luncheon. But it has been roast beef for the last four weeks. Thats why I dont eat roast beef to this day. Our moral couldnt get any lower especially with all the holidays coming up. Then to top it off, next month was Christmas and Bob Hope was to fly-into our base camp to entertain with his group of entertainers. But that was cancelled because the intelligent reports had an NVA size division built-up in our region and it was too dangerous for Mr. Bob Hope to put on his show. Instead he bypassed us and went up to DaNang to continue his tour of South Vietnam with his special holiday show. With less than five months to go on my tour, time blurred into a series of hot, cold, dry, wet, boring and frightening days. Memories seemed so distanced when I was just a kid enjoying my friends while living in Castroville and enjoying attending going to school at North Salinas High School. Then the treasured memories of my young wife, my family and all the values I was taught to become a responsible individual. Now I am here - everything seems a blurr on how this chapter of my life is going to define me as individual if I did become a casualty. I knew in my heart I had the strong will to survive because ever since the first day in Chu-Lai when I attended an outside mass, the Chaplain gave all the soldiers in attendance a rosary bead hand made from the laces of fallen soldiers combat boots. I wore that rosary around my neck for my entire tour in Nam. It was daily reminder that I will be guided home one way or another.
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 07:23:32 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015