End
of Tet -
the marks on her back, a letter
I'd rather not read.
At
the conclusion of the Tet Offensive in 1968, a girl who
worked as a laundrywoman on our base returned after a three
week absence. Her back was covered with hideous burns. Her
family had been tortured and murdered. It was a reprisal by
the Viet Cong for her working on our base. She, of course,
was an innocent. She worked for us to help support her
economically strapped family. Her alliance was to her
family, not to a political belief. Like many living in the
rural provinces of Vietnam, she wanted to live a simple life
free from another's tyranny.
autumn
evening now
the space between each shell
a deafening quiet
For
three weeks straight, during the TET Offensive in 1968, the
Viet Cong lobbed one mortar after another onto our Base in
Dong Tam. The attacks occurred late at night and early in
the morning. Needless to say, sleep wasn’t something we
got a lot of. The enemy attacked five to seven times an
evening. Erratically timed, we never knew when to expect an
attack. We just knew that they would come. When the mortars
came, they came with a vengeance. We were sitting ducks.
There was no way of anticipating where they would land. It
was a dice game with no winners. It was the deafening quiet
between each mortar that I remember the most. I couldn’t
relax. I couldn’t do anything but hope and pray that my
name wasn’t on one of the incoming shells. Wide-eyed like
a deer staring at a car’s headlights, I’d stare out at
the bay and wait. Every night. Every morning. Death taunted
us. Our imaginations, larger than life. We were the hunted,
unable to see the hunter. Base morale sunk to an all time
low. We grew tired, antsy, unsure of our futures. Bridges to
all roads leading to our Base were wiped out. Mail could not
be delivered. We were cut off from our families, our
linkline to sanity. Supplies didn’t get to us. Our dreams
put on hold.
r.wilson
Next:
EssayThe Other Side of the
Coin: Haiku and the Harsh Realities
Peter Brady
Read
More Vietnam Ruminations in Volume 1, Issue 1
