The October Flood: 1969
by Doc Dave Pfeifer
THANKS MJR,to be sharp enough to notice, that the story 'the folks
perception', is the lead in to the 'October flood story. For all others
who either weren't there or didn't see it, please read the folks
perception story first then this one.----PART 2
THE OCTOBER FLOOD 1969
A
fter staring out at the rain from our litle tents made from ponchos,
we tried sleeping, with the hope the rain would stop.It continued to pour
down on us.Early evening we awoke with the water coming into our tents
about ankle deep,and staring to float our air matresses. getting outside
quickly to see all the guys standing outside in ankle deep
water,muttering about what are we gonna do now?
Looking up at the sky it was still rainung but not as hard.ALL we could
do is stand there and pray it would stop raining soon.We tried our two
radios,and they squacked and made static but we couldn't raise anyone.We
weren't getting out.Well, our platoon strength was
twenty-eight men. We looked pretty wet and sorry standing and shivering
on that small knoll.As I looked around I kept saying how amazing it was
for that much water to raise about 8 feet above the rice paddies to flood
our little knoll above.By nine pm. it was waist deep and still raining.By
now all twenty eight of us were huddled up
into a small cicle on top of the knoll.The outside edges kept breaking
down under our feet,from the weight of us.The water seemed to be flowing
by us pretty fast and bringing with it trash and debris, like treelimbs
and stuff.Some of us managed to save our gear
by floating it on our air mattresses.More and more our gear floated away
from us and our circle got tighter trying to stay on the knoll.
One of the guys looked like he was coming down with pneumonia.
I worked my way around to him by hanging on to each of the guys as i
circled to get to him.His head was down and he had a high
fever,seezing and coughing.He had a soaking wet poncho liner wrapped
around him, and me and his buck sgt. kept holding him up as he wanted to
buckle in place.
By eleven o'clock the water was up to our chests and we all began to
think that we were all going to drown.Suddenly the rain stopped and all
the guys let out a cheer.We watched as a big full moon came out and
cheered again ,it can't rain with the moon out like that.
someone said,but nobody knew for sure.We were all struggling to hold on
to each other in a circle ,28 of us trying to stay up and together.The
debris continued to float towards us and we were fighting the big
branches and the current.some of the red flashlites still worked as we
used them to keep eye out on the stuff coming by us.We had lost most of
our gear by now ,no way to hold on to each other and to our mattresses
to.Slowly the water began to subside.
The buck sgt on the other side of the guy we were holding got my
attention and pointed, there on our guys shoulder was one of the
brightest lime green snake ,it was almost irridescent in the moon
light.Together we counted one, two three,and snapped his poncholiner
throwing the snake back into the water.Most of the guys yelled and
started looking all around for that snake or anyothers.Our
sick guy didn't even move the entire time,and by then probably didn't
care any more because he felt so bad.Acouple hours passed and the water
receded down to our waists and we started to the think we weregoing to
make it.some of the guys made wise cracks that Charly was probably
sitting on some fucking hill laughing their asses
off, at these stupid gi's gonna drown themselves and not to waist any
bullets on us.Then it began to sprinkle again, every one yelled oh,no! It
can't rain with the full moon out,It and it did.It continued to sprinkle
off and on all nite long ,so by morning it maintained the water level
agout waist deep.Also the knoll we clung to kept braking down and getting
smaller al nite.
At dawn we tried to fire some flares,only one of them fizzeled and
burned but didn't get any altitude. The one radio we had left didn't make
a sound any more.When suddenly, here comes one helicopter flying just a
few feet above the water and turning towards us . yeah.,
horay.airborne ,everyone cheered and waved there arms ,and yelled.
Black Widow had found us.After a short discussion with LT.,we decided to
send the sick guy out first, and then we would wait for them to return
for the rest of us.The buck sgt and I on each side of him, made our way
down from the knoll to the level ground and bounced us and him thru the
water toward the hovering chopper.
He had his skids in the water and the medic on board was leaning out the
side door arms out and standing one foot on the skid in the water.Not
realizing it as we bounced thru the water we came up on the edge of the
rice paddies and I sank down over my head.Thank god the sarge had stopped
and I struggled and pulled my way backup to level ground.We wre still
about eight feet from the guy in the door. So we decided to turn our guy
around backwards and sent him floatIng on his back towards the guy
leaning out.Just as he ran out of momentem,and started to sink,the guy
reached down and grabbed him and pulled him in.They waived and tookoff.We
lnew itwould be awhile before theyed be back for the rest of us. but now,
we knew thy knew where we were and would be back for us.We all started
high five-ing and cheering ,we made it.The water continued to recede and
got down to about our crotch level, by the time black widoc got back to
load five of us at a time off the knoll.The LT. insisted he had to be the
last man dff to ensure all his men got out safe.So I stayed with him,and
by the time they got to us the water had gotten down to ankle level.As we
got on the bird I asked the pilot why only one ship loaded us out ? He
said weather conditions were so bad nothing was flying, only volunteer
missions.
By the time
we got back to sally the Dr. had decided to stand us all down with 28
cases of emersion foot for three days.And that my friends is the story of
the october flood.
Doc Dave
Medic, Vietnam