T
he monsoons had started, and we humped in ,down a hill,and across a
river.The rice paddiies wereoverflowing and breaking down under the
weight of our feet.It seemed pretty flat for as far as we could see. It
was dark overcast and the rain came almost straight down and steady.We
pushed on looking for any kind of shelter from the cold rain.After what
seemed like hours of trudging thru the muck,
we spotted a knoll that stuck uo about 8 feet higher thanthe rest of the
paddies. We made for it to find it to be like a small island,just
sticking up out of the more level paddies.Standing atop this mound we
looked in every direction, visability was way down but as far as we could
see nothing within sight looked any higher than we were right now.LT.
said what do you think doc?I said I don't see anything anywhere.He
said,'yah, I don't se anything better either and if we keep going I don't
know which direction we'd find anything better.
Do you think we'll get washed out tonite?Well LT. for the water to come
up this far, it would have to rise about 8 feet in every direction. thats
a lot of water.OK guys set up here lets try to get dry.I didn't know how
much those word would come back to haunt me.
LT and I made a tent tying our pochos together, then we blew up
our air mattresses and crawled in. All I could think about was getting
warm and dry.We watched as the rain continued to fall and it was
getting darker.The LT. pulled some mail out of his pack and said ,
'hey doc.listen to this , it's from my uncle back in florida.' He reads
from the letter, "..well Jim, now that you've been in Vietnam for a few
months, have you found any good seafood restaraunts yet?"
We both looked at each other for a minute shook our heads and turned to
look at the rain contining to pour down on us.
Doc Dave Medic, Vietnam
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