The Cordon-Snake
by Dave "Doc" Holladay
B Co. 1st platoon, 1/501, Fall '68. A.O. Coastal Plain East of LZ Sally.
Ap Sue Lo Thuoung or Ap Sue Lo Dong grave yard. Sandy rolling low hills,
fairly flat with rounded mounds of graves with concrete large head
stones. The head stones were ideal to hide behind, if need be. We were
told that Bravo Co. would be a blocking Co., and either A, C, or D Co.
were to be flown North of us and sweep toward us in a day long Cordon
operation. My squad position was spread out in a line in the grave
mounds. My position, with one other soldier, a black man that I cannot
remember his name or about him, had a very good line of fire zone in
front of us. As the morning wore on and hearing no action, we decided to
take turns napping while the other stood guard. The man with me was
sleeping with his head behind the tomb stone and his body sheltered from
the direction we expected any V.C. to be pushed in our direction. I saw
movement by the tomb stone near my friend, and swept my M-16 in his
direction. We were always gun shy, so this reaction was normal. To my
horror, was the biggest, fattest very dark brown snake that had to be
over 6' long, crawl out of a hole from the left side of the tomb stone. I
froze, as it crawled slowly across my buddy. The snake crawled very slow
over his body and went into another hole about 1 meter past him. When he
awoke, I told him to stay away from those 2 holes that I pointed out to
him. I never did tell him what I had seen, cause I was afraid he would
freak out and compromise our position. Nothing was flushed to us that
day, making the day a good one.
Dave "Doc" Hollady
B/1/501: Vietnam 1968-'69