Truman was waiting for me at the outpost. He motioned for me to step into a hut.
“Hell of a stunt there, Thomas. You got brass balls. Here, this is my Distinguished Service Cross from WW2. I’d like to get you your own, but the citation would need to be heavily redacted, and the paperwork would take forever to process. I know how you feel about paperwork.”
“Keep it, sir. I got all the gold stars I needed in kindergarten. If you really want to do me a favor, make sure everyone in this village is taken somewhere safe if the shit hits the fan. If I have to come back here and rescue Binh and Sao Mai myself, I will.”
“We’ll take care of them. I promise.”
“I’d like to spend some time to decompress in Hue. It’s a very relaxing place for me.”
“That’s all I need to hear. Off you go and let me know when you’re back here at the outpost. Dismissed!”
Hue was my happy place in Vietnam, my oasis of tranquility. Although it was still badly damaged from the Tet Offensive, it still had its charm. US Marines retook with city with no air support, as the higher ups did not want to damage this historic and beautiful city. They were also forbidden from using tanks, artillery, and mortars. Considering how badly they were outnumbered; it was a magnificent victory.
As I pondered the Perfume River once more from a cafe, I decided it was time for another beer. As I drank it, I began to feel weirdly woozy. As my eyes closed and I slumped down, my last thought was: Oh, fuck! Someone spiked my drink. As I came to, I was being dragged through a hallway. All I had on was my underwear. They chained me to a wall, upside down. A white guy with a Russian accent came in and spoke to me. Aw, shit. KGB. They were in Vietnam and helping the communists. It also gave them the opportunity to interrogate Americans or get info from communist Vietnamese who had done so. The KGB were fearsome. I read about their language and espionage training. They even had a full-size mock American town in a place called Vinnytsia in Ukraine. That’s where their main spy school was, so I had read.
The KGB guy was average height and lean. He had a fearsome, penetrating gaze. Whatever he was about to do to me, he had done it to many others, and he knew it would be painful. He spoke in an eerily calm, soft voice. He bent down to my level and spoke almost directly into my ear.
“Hello, American war hero. See this syringe? Full of scopolamine. Sweet dreams.”
He jammed the needle in my arm and pushed down the plunger. I had heard rumors about scopolamine torture. Scopolamine is an extremely powerful hallucinogenic and psychotic. It’s often called the most dangerous drug in the world. It’s a good thing I was kind of insane already at the time else I would have lost my whole mind.
If you ask me, all good soldiers are a little crazy. It’s how you stay alive. There was a famous Lakota warrior named Tasunke Witko, which means Crazy Horse. He fought against the Army at Custer’s Last Stand.
It was worse than anything I had heard or could have imagined. It’s hard to put into words. Imagine your memories become your worst enemy and take you a guided tour of your own personal hell. It was an unbelievable, terrifying agony that lasted for what to me seemed like 1,000 years. At long last, my eyes opened and thank god for that. I was still hanging upside down and handcuffed. Fortunately, they had not examined my hair when they strip-searched me. I looked and listened for guards, and when I was sure there weren’t any around, I took out the two hairpins from my hair and fashioned them into lock pick tools with my hands and teeth. I worked off the handcuffs first and they fell to the floor with a clink. The manacles on my feet were much harder to work off because I had to do a kind of sit up exercise and hold it for a while as I tried to pick the locks. It took several attempts, but I picked one then the other. I then fell a few inches onto the ground and rolled over heels overhead. It was a great feeling to put my hands on the floor, push up, bring my knees in, and get on my feet.
As I stood up, I thought: OK, great. How the hell do I get out of here and which way should I run? I checked the room for anything I could use as a weapon and found a ballpoint pen. Not as good as a Ka-Bar, but better than nothing. I put the bent hairpins in my underwear to save for later in case I needed to pick more locks. Very slowly, I opened the unlocked door to the cell and peeked both ways. To my left, I saw an NVA guard facing away from me. I got my pen ready for attack. A pen isn’t sharp, so I put my left hand over his mouth, pulled him down, and started stabbing him in the eyes. I put him a triangle choke and held it until he stopped moving. Then I took off his uniform and sandals and dressed myself with them. He also had a Makarov pistol, so I took that too. I needed to find the exit and hopefully get a knife on my way out.
I turned around, walked to the end of the corridor and opened the door slowly. I saw no one around. I scanned the room quickly for anything useful. Damn, nothing. I saw a door that looked like an exit and opened it. When I did, I felt cool air and heard crickets chirping. Jackpot. As I moved outside, I saw another NVA guard. He had a rifle with a bayonet. A bayonet is almost like a knife, so I thought. I crept up behind him and shot him in the back of the head, point blank. There must have been an air raid going on because I hear flak guns firing, and they were nearby. The sound of those shots made me feel safe about shooting the pistol. The bayonet on his SKS rifle was fixed and I had to work it for a while to wrench it off. The SKS was manufactured with a fixed, folding bayonet. The Soviets exported it to many countries before the AK-47 came around.
My fave spot was Nha Trang. On the rare occasions that I had to go to Brigade HQs I stayed in an officer’s transit billets next door to a bar called the Nipahut.
Sign out front said : Cold beer
Loud music
Hot women
Sorry ’bout that.
If one was sober and inclined one could step over a metal railing of one building and a long step onto the back of the Nipahut. Wouldn’t have to go outside if it was raining.
It was a place to wind down. The girls would hustle Saigon tea at some outrageous price, I never got involved so pretty much the ladies left me alone because I was a “Cheap Charlie”., “Numbah Ten”
That’s not a compliment.
Neato, I learned something new today. I have another job interview Friday. Yay me. It seems #10 is the opposite of #1, so the worst rather than the best.
I guess tax day has everyone in a bad mood. Either that, or it’s just a slow night. Just the same, I always enjoy seeing my work on display and seeing the engagement it gets.
There was even a worse insult than being a “Numbah Ten”. That was being a “Numbah Hucking Ten”.
The ‘F’ sound in VN is a ‘ph’. There is no ‘F’ in the VN alphabet
Got my refunds back.
Hope you do well on the job search .
Busy night here. Just logged in to see what you were up to. Wife is working 7 AM to 8 PM lately, and I’ve not been doing much better. Eight more years until the house is paid off. Then I can relax?
Nice chapter, I look forward to your next!
So I’m sitting on the trolley in Ybor City this morning when Tampa mayor Jane Caster (D) climbs on board with a camera crew to shoot one of those “we are open for business development” kind of ads. When she finished ( only two takes) she asked where passengers were from. When I said Pennsylvania, she asked what I liked about Tampa. I stammered something about how hard working everyone seemed and a whole lot more Americans need to pull their own weight. She gave me a curt “thank you”, climbed off, and we rattled off to downtown.
You could have said something back to her in Spanish or Creole, about how it was like coming back home.
Here you go, Derp
The song, Bamiba, fits your narrative
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=BugBwt2ESpo&list=PLrGa_BllgBDE-U3JssXTtXVYaYip2fNfO
Thanks 4score. I own that album but haven’t heard that song in decades.
I can’t believe Dial discontinued Boraxo powdered soap. World really is going to hell in a hand basket.
My two cents, and the point isn’t being made enough -yea, Israel attacked Iran’s consulate to get at high value targets.
But people defending Iran are ignoring the reality that they are the largest funders of Hamas, and likely had a huge role in the entire war Israel is currently fighting. Hamas doesn’t do shit if Iran doesn’t sign off on it. Iran was already in a proxy war with Israel. One of their choosing.
A lot of people bitch about how it’s the young people who die in old men’s wars, and the old men behind it all never seem to get a scratch.
Then, when some of the old men catch a bomb . . . .
Yeah, Israel broke a rule. Given that they nailed some of the men behind their people getting raped, tortured, murdered, and kidnapped for more rape, torture, and murder, I can’t really get too upset.
I also think the notion that hundreds of missiles is an appropriate response for one surgical strike is . . Pushing it.
It’s pretty much the same bullshit the Muslims always play. Hide in schools, hospitals and behind women and children. They were abusing the diplomatic protections afforded to consulates.
Maybe one day people will ask questions of the Biden administration about the billions they gave to the Iranians and the billions more freed up by loosening sanctions.
Our foreign policy couldn’t be more incompetent if we tried.
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-retaliates-against-iran-by-attaching-note-to-pallet-of-cash-that-says-please-do-not-use-for-terrorism
It wasn’t like the IDF bombed that consulate because Israel was upset that the Iranians cashed their check and didn’t give them a visa.
They killed of the top four IRGC corps commanders, who could credibly be assumed to have helped plan the current Gaza war. Now three of the four are dead, and Trump killed the first in 2020.
It was not like the other nations stood by. Both the Saudis and Jordanians have publicly stated they helped to defend Israel from the incoming threats. That alone is huge. biden said “Don’t.” and we saw well the mullahs listened. Those nations said “Fuck it. Shoot them down.” Now biden says to ISR “To take the win.” showing he has no idea how deterrence works.
The hell of the situation for us is that with biden our friends don’t trust us and our enemies (actual or potential) don’t. With Trump in office both friends and enemies were wondering what he would do. Not exactly the best situation for avoiding war, but better than what we got going now.
Fixed- “,,,with biden our friends don’t trust us and our enemies (actual or potential) don’t fear us.”
“The IDF killed one of the top four in the strike for a total of three of the four….’
Now back to our regular programming.
I don’t think it was so much other countries knowing what Trump would do, but what the State would do after Trump issued an order.
“Yes Sir, all our troops are out of Syria.”
Insurrection, how does it work?
That and Miley calling the PRC and telling them he would warn them Trump did something he didn’t approve of. WTF Chairman?
Grizz will tell you that you don’t really despise that behavior, you’re just a crypto-zionist and you don’t even know it!
Eh, I’m firmly in the camp of “Iran doesn’t get to claim diplomatic privileges ever again until there’s a complete change of government.”
This. When your current government came into power by taking over the U.S. Embassy and taking hostages there, and holding them for over a year – you’ve set the Rules Of Engagement for diplomatic immunity.
Fuck you infinite scroll/dynamic web pages.
I just want to know the TRUE inflation rate on the $10 sucky sucky. That’s all I ask, and get no answers.
Same as downtown!
That sounds Funky Dory.
Not Funky Town?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhzy7JaU2Zc
A friend of mine wore the black shirt to class in HS. She did not make it to 2d period. (Hey, it was the 70’s.)
I had This T-shirt and wore it to school, a teacher, who I ended up turning libertarian later, made me put tape over the cartoon nipples.
With an actual inflation rate of 18% round it up to $12 but probably $15 so there are less bills.
That was 70s dollars, so it’s gotta be at least 7% per annum. You Boomers and Gen Xers screwed me, The All Important Millennial.
“You..Gen Xers”?
Why you do me dirty like that??
I was just calculating from when biden took office. If you go back to 1976 you would need to pay $54,54 or rounded up to $55 since she don’t make change.
Because of your generation, I Never Had A Dream Come True.
Happy Tuesday morning!
🍳😋☕
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EvuL5jyCHOw
🎶🎸
Good morning, Sean and Suthen!
Morning.
Good morning, U! How are you today?
I made the mistake of checking my weight this morning. I’m uo twelve pounds from before I hurt my foot.
I’m going to have to ramp up my physical activity. Maybe find my headphones so I can listen to books and walk.
If you’re getting similar weather to us a day or two later, it may finally be getting more consistently warm (if sometimes rainy,) making walks more doable!
Good morning Ma’am.
I slept like a stone. Hope you rested well.
I have plans…things to do. Mrs. Suthenboy just reminded me that we have to appear at some medical facility this morning for some kind of screening.
Dammit. The spring is getting past me and nonsense like this keeps whittling away at my time.
Thanks! Slept pretty well, just not long enough.
Hope your pass (or flunk?) the screening, depending on which is the more favorable outcome!
Climate change is making you sneeze.
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/philadelphia-allergy-season-tips/
🙄
Is that a joke? That’s a parody, right?
Oh….CBS news. Shit, for a second there I thought it was purporting to be an actual news site.
Segal said 2023 was the warmest winter on record
People were watching the eclipse last week in foot-deep snow in New England.
They just make shit up because they think most people will swallow whatever is shoveled at them. Sadly they appear to be mostly correct.
Imagine if we had real journalist.
Seriously…who the fuck is this guy? No one with CBSs resource could reach out to anyone else for maybe some more factual information and instead hope DOCTOR carries some weight with a bullshit article.
Since “climate change” results in milder winters more than hotter summers, I fail to see the problem.
The problem is that by the time I can afford a bobcat with plow attachment and enough land to use it, there won’t be any snow to push!
Morning all.
I keep hearing a lot of talk about measured responses and avoiding war.
It is delusion and this one road only leads one place…a never ending hell.
Morning all,
Measured responses is what I get if I complain about the cooking.
Shoving what where?
Measured responses and “proportionate responses” make it safe for weak powers to attack strong powers, and therefore encourages them to do so.
They’re fine if the perps understand that you gave them a warning shot across the bow, and they need to show contrition tout suite.
In the context of them starting a war, it’s counterproductive, especially when their slogan translates as “We plan to kill all y’all.”
Belated good morning all!
Good morning at the close of the thread!