Re: Vietnam

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Yates wrote:

>    My war veteran students were upset
> that I had canceled class in support of the national protest, and I
> noted with dismay that I was the only teacher who did.

I was a bit luckier than Mike in the veterans I got in my classes.
Two in particular. One had been badly wounded during Tet and
had spent half a year or more in a Veterans Hospital. He told
me that the patients there split neatly into two groups: wounded
pre-Tet and for the war, wounded Post-Tet and against it. He
also told an anecdote that illustrated the break-up of the U.S.
Army in Vietnam. His platoon was positioned for an ambush
along a trail, with claymore mines buried in the trail itself. An
NVA column came around the bend of the trail, and the
platoon sergeant reached to put his finger on the switch to
set off the mines. The lt. pulled his 45 and pointed it at
the sergeant. When the leader of the NVA patrol got to
just a few feet from where they were hidden, he stepped
aside and allowed his men to pass by. He looked around,
smiled at his unseen audience, reached down, disconnected
the wires to the claymore mines, and followed his men up
the trail. No one hurt.

Carrol