Alwaysawarrior

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MY SARGENT'S LITTLE WHITE LIE

Hilton Compound guard towers

Around our little air base we had bunkers & towers
The bunkers were much safer during mortar attacks
Whichever one you drew you'd stand guard for hours
From up in the towers you'd cover your buddies backs

Standing up there so high you made a very nice target
Some nights you'd hear a shot as a bullet whizzed by
This tower is made of plywood I yelled at my Sargent
VC can see me standing up here do you want me to die?

He said there's armored plates between the plywood sides
Their bullets can't reach you but you can shoot them all
He gave me courage saying I'd be able to chew their hides
This ground I'd defend they may come but they would fall

I found out later on there never had been armored plating
He simply made it up to calm me down and help me be brave
To face any enemy attack with the courage I'd been lacking
He had said that to keep me from ending up dead in a grave

© Terry Sasek - Alwaysawarrior - all rights reserved.

We were so short handed and never had enough security police to defend
our base down in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam, So guys like
me were assigned to pull extra double shifts and duty during those most
dangerous times when they had received intelligence reports saying that
the threats of the VC mounting an attack on our base were very high and
that we could expect them to infiltrate across the border region between
Cambodia and South Vietnam. We hadn't received all the advanced training
that the regular combat security policemen had been given, we were only
given a one day refresher course how to fire, clean and maintain those
weapons we would be using out there on our guard posts. When I was given
my very first assignment to this one 25 foot tall guard tower It became
very obvious to me quickly that I would be an very easy target for these
VC snipers to shoot at from across the small river that was between them
and our remote air base while I was up there in my guard tower. When my
Sargent came by to see how I was doing out there by myself, he listened
to the concerns I had about my position up in this tower and how easily
the VC could shoot at me up there while I was on guard duty. He told me
not to be worried about it because there were these armored steel plates
that were sandwiched between the plywood sides of my guard tower. He had
made up the story because he didn't have the time to babysit the new guy
(me) that was assigned to his team on the night shift and he thought his
story would calm me down some so I would be more alert out there to any
possible enemy movements as they were trying to get near the base. It was
a few months later after I had been reassigned back to my regular unit to
maintain and fix our crash-fire and crash-rescue trucks that I was told
the truth about guard towers #2 and #3 down by the river when this old
Sargent came by the fire station to say good bye to me, he had finished
his tour of duty at our remote air base and was leaving in the morning
to go back home. But he had wanted to thank me for helping out with our
bases security policemen and defending our air base from those constant
threats we all faced from the VC. He told me he was proud of me for the
way that I'd handled myself and all of my extra duties with them as well
but that he did want to tell me the truth about something before he left
for home. He asked if I remembered Christmas Eve night when I had pulled
guard duty alone up there in tower #2 by the river and that I was really
worried about being an easy target for the VC while I was up there? Well
he continued, there never were any armored plates between those plywood
sides of that tower or the #3 tower, he said he had just told me that to
get me to be more focused on watching for the VC. He kind of grinned at
me as I suddenly started to turn about six shades of green as I realized
that I never had been safe up there at all. But he reminded me just how
good of a guard I had become after that night as I regained my confidence
back thanks to his little white lie.

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MY SARGENT`S LITTLE WHITE LIE