Water And Bloodsuckers
The water was up to my nose and I couldn’t swim. Made it all the way through Basic Training, Advanced Infantry Training, and Vietnam, and I couldn’t swim. Anyway, the water was up to my nose, and I was holding the Sixty-caliber machine gun (‘60’), over my head. I could drown; just so, I didn’t get the ‘60’ wet. I was wading across a river in Vietnam. I always got behind the tallest person in the unit, when we went across any kind of water. Being only five feet seven inches tall, (short) I knew if the six-foot plus tall guy in front of me went under, I would just turn around and walk out of the water. They could go on without me. This time I made it all the way across the river. I was lucky this time.
One time we had to cross a little pond. Everything went fine, except when we got to the other side; we discovered we were covered with leaches. We had to pull up our pant legs and pick those bloodsuckers off. Good thing that pond was not too deep.
The last time I had to cross a river, I was still carrying the ‘60’. It was night, very dark and we were in the jungle. I refused to cross that river. I told whoever would listen, “Hey, I am not crossing that river at night, period. In addition, I will not cross it in daylight if it is over my head. I’ll just set up the ’60’ here and wait until you guys get back, I’d rather take my chances alone with the Viet Cong than cross that river at night.” The Sarge said, “Binion you will cross that damn river, we will send Meadows (he was over six feet tall) across first and he will tie a rope on the other side and bring it back. All you have to do is hook the ’60 on to the rope and hold your breath and walk across the bottom.” “ Yeah, right!” I said.
I had already made up my mind not to cross the river, “they’ could court-marshal me, I just wasn’t going to cross that river. Well, the issue became moot when Meadows returned from the other side of the river and told the “powers that be” that there were cliffs; straight up, that could not be climbed within a couple of hours. That information saved me, because the only reason the officers wanted to cross the river was to save time. Therefore, we would go around another way, which suited me just fine. I was lucky, again.
Live and learn; learn and live.
One time we had to cross a little pond. Everything went fine, except when we got to the other side; we discovered we were covered with leaches. We had to pull up our pant legs and pick those bloodsuckers off. Good thing that pond was not too deep.
The last time I had to cross a river, I was still carrying the ‘60’. It was night, very dark and we were in the jungle. I refused to cross that river. I told whoever would listen, “Hey, I am not crossing that river at night, period. In addition, I will not cross it in daylight if it is over my head. I’ll just set up the ’60’ here and wait until you guys get back, I’d rather take my chances alone with the Viet Cong than cross that river at night.” The Sarge said, “Binion you will cross that damn river, we will send Meadows (he was over six feet tall) across first and he will tie a rope on the other side and bring it back. All you have to do is hook the ’60 on to the rope and hold your breath and walk across the bottom.” “ Yeah, right!” I said.
I had already made up my mind not to cross the river, “they’ could court-marshal me, I just wasn’t going to cross that river. Well, the issue became moot when Meadows returned from the other side of the river and told the “powers that be” that there were cliffs; straight up, that could not be climbed within a couple of hours. That information saved me, because the only reason the officers wanted to cross the river was to save time. Therefore, we would go around another way, which suited me just fine. I was lucky, again.
Live and learn; learn and live.
posted by 7horses | Tuesday, June 21, 2005
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