Alwaysawarrior

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THE DANCE OF THE COBRA

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The Mekong Delta was a most dangerous place
Besides the enemy and his assorted weapons
Nature had things they'd make your heart race
There were snakes & giant insects by the tons


The suffocating heat and relentless humidity
Carrying your gear and ammo weighed 60 pounds
Worried of heat stroke while we saved humanity
We piled up sandbags around bunkers in mounds


We did what we could but it never seemed enough
The locals always wanted handouts or some snack
They wanted our help for them things were tough
We felt so helpless at times and sent them back


Every night we manned our sandbagged positions
Watching the wire for any movements or sounds
At the free fire zone there was no hesitations
If a flare shot up our guns chewed the grounds


Many nights the worst enemy was shear boredom
Endless hours spent watching for any movement
Fighting to keep your eyes open guarding freedom
There was a sound I heard it for just a moment


Straining my ears for a slight hint as to where
Sweat pouring down my face as I strained to see
Then I heard it behind me I knew what was there
I turned ever so slowly to where it might now be


I clicked on my red filtered flashlight to a hiss
My heart stopped in mid beat as I stared at death
It seemed forever the dance of the cobra's kiss
Time froze as I raised my gun holding my breath


As I put my finger on the trigger ready to fire
The cobra was now swaying and spreading his hood
I stared him in the eyes thinking I'd soon expire
Pulled the trigger and it exploded where it stood



Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - All Rights Reserved



Nothing in Vietnam terrified me more than the dance
of a cobra one late night which had slipped into our
defensive machine gun bunker out on the perimeter of
our remote air base while on guard duty. When such an
event would occur, you were suppose to call into the
command center and ask for permission so we could kill
the snake or some rat so a sudden gun fire would not  
be misinterpreted as an attack on the base. But this
situation didn't allow us to make this call to let
everyone know what we were intending to do so as not
to spook everyone else out on the defensive line. I
knew that once the cobra spread his hood it was just
a second or two later that it would make it's deadly
strike at us so I squeezed the trigger just as it had
reared back in order for it to strike forward at us
it's intended victims and fortunately for us my quick
burst fire took off the cobra's head as it started to
strike out at us. My partner quickly called defense
control on the radio to explain why we hadn't called
in before we had taken action against the cobra and
though we both got our butts chewed out good, neither
of us had gotten a deadly bite out of it.















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THE DANCE OF THE COBRA