In the Line of Duty

By Ken

I really wish I could think of something worthwhile to send you. I can see myself now reposing in a loft somewhere in France overlooking the champs de ellysse (sp??), spending rainy nights, eating that cold soup crap they like, getting to know frenchmen and sacrificing my youth toiling away on the next great american novel. But as fate would have it, the closest I came to France was picking up a few words of french in a vietnamese cafe in the Cholon fish market section of Saigon.......granted, the people were unwashed, the food sucked, and it rained a lot but the experience didn't have the jene se' quois necessary for great writing, there is a story there however.

There was a guy in the local house of ill repute who was AWOL from his unit. Several other Americans were in there also and I can only speculate that they were there participating in the military's then ongoing attempts to win the hearts and minds of the people - as some wag once said "grab'em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow"........anyway, I digress..........A sapper came through and tossed a satchel charge into the joint and this poor bastard jumped out a window to save his ass. He was cut up a little but nothing fatal. He made his way back to his unit and his company CO didn't want to have to explain to the battalion commander how this guy ended up AWOL in such a place un be known to anyone at company level. So to make a long story not quite so long, the guy ends up with a purple heart for "wounds sustained while combating the insurgent forces of communism."..........pretty heroic stuff, eh??