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Seasoned Vet
 
Group: Past PNET Supporter
Last Login: 10/22/2008 8:18 PM
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This is too long to post all of it, so here's a little bit, click the link for the rest of it---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsung Heroes
© 2001
Curtis R. Rich
"Want to know the difference between a fairy tale and a war story? A fairy tale starts off ‘once upon a time….’ A war story starts off ‘Now this ain’t no shit…’"
Chapter 1
So there will be no doubt, we will begin this story… Once upon a time, long ago and far away there was a mythical place called Vietnam. It was a place of implacable dragons, tarnished knights in green armor, impossible quests, evil kings and cruel princes and damn few damsels in distress. It was a kind of place where nothing was what it seemed to be. It was a mythical place that never existed except on the 6 O’Clock News and in other fairy tales. This is one.
In order to have a story about brave knights and fair maidens, one must have a warrior king. In the little kingdom called Advisory Team 202, the good king was an U. S. Army Colonel named Frank Davis. He had carefully recruited a band of brave knights and inherited a magician in Sergeant Major’s stripes. But he needed a knight errant to send on an impossible quest.
12 November 1969
Lai Khe, Republic of South Vietnam
Senior Advisor’s Quarters, Advisory Team 202
1520 Hours
Frank Davis, Colonel, United States Army, 42, walked through the door held open by Donald Finch, Colonel, United States Army, 53. Walking behind Davis was a lieutenant colonel, Thomas Randolph, 39, a major, Terry Bryant, 30, and a captain, Arnold Burke, 40. Colonel Davis did not hold the door open for the junior officers but handed it to Randolph, who handed it to Burke, who held it for Randolph. It didn’t quite match protocol, but Finch didn’t want the air conditioning in his trailer to get out. Inside he motioned to seats and to the bar and said, "Bar’s open."
Burke went to the bar and said, "What will you gentlemen be having?" Burke was over age for a captain in this war, where the average captain was in his twenties. It was generally assumed by people who met him that he had been a mustang promoted from a sergeantcy. This was not the case, however. He had been in the Michigan National Guard when his wife of fourteen years had divorced him, and he had asked for active duty in Vietnam. That had been in 1967. He had been there ever since, meeting Colonel Davis while Davis was still a lieutenant colonel commanding a battalion in the 101st Airborne. He had managed to follow Colonel Davis to every assignment since, being part of Davis’s unofficial entourage. Technically each man in the entourage held a staff position in Davis’s units. Burke wore a Combat Infantryman’s badge on his left chest and a 101st patch on the right shoulder. He had been passed over for major once because of his age and because National Guard officers usually were passed over when on active duty. Only a spectacular combat record could prevent it happening a second time, which would end his military career. The U. S. Army had an "up or out" policy, and major was the usual stumbling block for marginal officers.
Finch said, "Bourbon, water, ice." Finch was 5’8", 180 lbs., ruddy faced, balding.
"Yes, sir." Burke reached into the small refrigerator and pulled out an ice tray and began to break it up into cubes.
"The usual," said Davis. Davis was tall and lean, 6’2", 180 lb. He wore a Fifth Special Forces patch on his right shoulder, and his left shoulder had a ranger tab over the MACV emblem. His chest had a Combat Infantryman’s Badge, a Springfield rifle on a rectangular board with a wreath around it. This one had a star in the wreath, indicating infantry combat service in Korea and Vietnam. Above it was a pair of master airborne wings with a star indicating a combat jump. The usual was Tanqueray gin, tonic, ice, and lime. It was understood that if the bar in question did not have Tanqueray, whatever gin was there was a distant second place. In Vietnam, limes were not usually available. Artificial lime juice from a bottle was a distant second but better than no lime at all. This bar had no fresh limes and no artificial lime juice. Burke made a mental note to correct that when he moved Colonel Davis in. Burke had a source for fresh limes. He had gotten his position with Colonel Davis because of his prowess in combat, but he liked pleasing the Colonel and went out of his way to do things like this. He took one out of his pocket, cut it with a Randall No. 1 fighting knife, and squeezed the contents of the entire lime into Colonel Davis’s glass. The 7" long blade of the Randall was immensely overqualified for the job of slicing limes. But then Burke was immensely overqualified to be a bartender, and his qualifications were in other areas.
http://www.curtrich.com/UnsungHeroes.html
Evil Unchecked Grows, and Evil Tolerated Poisens The Entire System. Jahwal Nehru ------------------------------------------------------------- In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Mark Twain.
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Seasoned Vet
Group: Past PNET Supporter
Last Login: 10/22/2008 8:18 PM
Posts: 2,826,
Visits: 546
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Here's another one.
http://www.15thmedassociation.org/stories.html
Evil Unchecked Grows, and Evil Tolerated Poisens The Entire System. Jahwal Nehru ------------------------------------------------------------- In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.
Mark Twain.
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