i was just thinking about my old friend "Hoss" .. he was from Tennessee... then we were active in Vietnam we were always kept separate . we couldn,t socialized or even talk to other soldiers because of our secret operations ,, when we were " in country" we couldn,t shower or shave or use soap or even toothpaste... nothing that would give us away ... so we were isolated at time ... and i remember one nite we were watching the tv programm.. and they said that our troops have never invaded north Vietnam... and Hoss said ' I,ve spent more time in north Vietnam than Ho Chi Min.. Ha!!! .. . we were always up there... we,d strike and then it would be a death race back to the border !!! we,d be on our own till we got back to the border... they wouldn,t even try to rescue us if we were behind enemy lines... officially we didn,t exist ... if captured we were treated as spies and tortured and executed ... that,s why we couldn,t leave anyone behind .. it was a desperate brotherhood.. one trick we,d do to slow down our pursuers is this :
the rear guard would lay a booby trap mine on the trail ... it would be just obvious enough that the enemy would see it and run around it ... and farther down the trail he would put another one... just the same ... onle we,d mine both sides of the trail ... they,d run up to it an run around it ... BLAM! ... from then on they went real slow ... sometimes the rear guard would lose contact with the others ... sometimes we,d get scattered in a fire fight ... we were always a very small force ... 4...6....8... etc .. i liked being rear guard ... i don,t know why .. i was rear guard when i ended up on that ladder !!!! ... what is it with me ???.. i,m not a heroic .. may be i have a death wish ... but there is nothing ever like playing such a deadly game ... when you come home from that and they expect you to go back to the shoe store ... no way !!! ... the gooks that were trying to kill me were wonderful soldiers.. the best ... they were professional and dedicated and very good ... . very organized and disciplined.. and ruthless!!! they killed many of my friends... we killed each other for no reason ... i was watching CNN and it was showing some special forces slogging along a trail with a big pack and i told to my son ' that,s all water and ammo"... and the reporter asked him what he was carrying and he said " water and bullets" !!! .. of course i,m sure he had other things that he couldn,t say . and it,s reassuering that those boys are the same still .. but it was so funny ... and it was funny when people said we can,t fight in the winter over there ... HA ! HA!... we always pray for bad weather .. rain .. wind... snow .. anything that makes the enemy seek shelter and anything that hides our noise so we can operate .. good weather we sit tight ... bad weather we attack ...