Another Place - Episode 13

Another Place Another Time

Book One

Jake and Whispers

Episode Thirteen

I guess I dozed some, but I woke up every time Johnson moved or moaned. Finally, he went to sleep and I did, too. I woke as the sun was rising, not because of the sun, but because Whispers whined in my ear. He whined so softly, the sound wasn’t audible three feet away. I opened my eyes, but didn’t move. I quickly scanned the small clearing where we were lying, but I couldn’t see or hear anything that could have alarmed Whispers. I put my hand on his head and asked, “What is it, Whispers?” We lay there silently for a few seconds when, suddenly, I had a picture in my mind of two men and a large animal coming around a bend in a trail.

Very slowly, I raised myself up on one knee, and looked carefully over the top of the grass that hid us from view. I heard voices. In a few seconds, two men, leading a water buffalo, appeared around a bend on a narrow trail just beyond the rice paddies. They went directly to a small rice paddy, a hundred yards from us.

For the rest of the day, I listened to them and, occasionally, watched them as they worked. At no time did they show that they noticed anything amiss. At dusk, they led the water buffalo away in the direction from which they had arrived.

Night fell and the moon rose, a signal for the cricket concert to begin. I guessed that it was near midnight when I heard voices again. Aware that I was awake, Whispers didn’t whine. I noted the crickets had quit chirping. I carefully raised my head and looked towards the trail the farmers had used earlier. I stopped breathing when I saw many men moving east on the road. Dressed in loose black pants and shirts, they appeared more like shadows than men, but I knew they weren’t shadows; they were Viet Cong.

For fifteen minutes, I watched them pass by. I estimated there were two companies of them, roughly 300 men, as well as I could figure. Then, as quickly as they came, they were gone. In seconds, the crickets were singing again as if nothing had happened, and I knew we were safe for a while.

In that instant, I recalled what Captain Kennedy had said when I told him that I wanted to be a scout dog handler more than anything in the world.

“Remember those words when a year or so from now you find yourself lying in a rice paddy, with your dog lying beside you, both of you too afraid to breathe, because you’re surrounded by a company of Viet Cong moving along a supply trail less than a hundred feet away. Remember those words then, and stay real quiet, until Charlie has cleared the area.”

I remembered, and I grinned despite our situation, or maybe because of it. I looked at Whispers and, as crazy as it might sound, I knew it had been worth it.

I checked Johnson who was moaning softly and showing signs of regaining consciousness. He began to moan louder. In a whisper, I told him I was going to give him more morphine and within seconds, the farm boy from Kansas was back in the morphine-induced land of no pain.

An hour later, I heard faint explosions coming from the east. I knew the VC I had watched go past had launched a surprise attack somewhere, but I didn’t have a clue where.

The sound of fighting was over in minutes. Forty-five minutes passed and I heard the VC returning. This time as I watched them pass, they didn’t seem like shadows, not scary at all. They were just a bunch of people on the way home from work. Having relieved themselves of the rockets, mortar rounds, and ammunition they had been carrying earlier, they were traveling much quicker than before. Obviously hurrying to get back into hiding before daylight exposed them.

Watching them, I realized that they were just like everyone on the planet who had a job - more eager to get home than they were to go to work. I shook off my trance and made some notes about numbers and armaments.

When they were gone, I knew there would be no more surprises. So I lay down beside Whispers and slept. He woke me when the farmers showed up again for work a few hours later.

At some point between my first and second sighting of the VC, I realized just how serious this was. I wasn’t thinking about this patrol, because I thought we would be all right with this one. I was thinking about Vietnam, the war, and our part in it. We had to survive for almost twelve months and, with the first two days being what they had been, I knew the odds were against us. It doesn’t register when you’re thirteen thousand miles from a war and someone tells you there’s a good chance you’ll die in it. But it becomes a whole new ball game when you realize – suddenly realize – that it is probably going to happen. I sat with that thought for a long time, and then I put my arm around Whispers.

“Boy, I’m going to do everything I can to get us through this, and I know you’ll be doing the same.”

Whispers whined quietly.

“If we make it, you can be sure I’ll do whatever it takes to get us both back home again. In fact, Whispers, I’m not leaving here without you. You can count on that.”

*********

The LURPS returned on schedule. They had seen no sign of the enemy. I reported what happened during the night. Barzuto pulled a small notebook from his fatigue jacket and began taking notes about the time the VC arrived, when they returned, how many there were, and how they were equipped. When he had all the information, he said, “Jake, that’s what we came out here to find out. Hell, the rest of us didn’t see a living soul. We could have just sent you and Whispers.” He laughed and closed his notebook, adding, “You’ll probably get a medal for this.”

Williams rigged a stretcher for Johnson and gave him another shot of morphine. We carried him back to the Landing Zone where the Greyhounds arrived with the first wave of infantry about thirty minutes after we got there. The infantrymen unloaded and began assembling in the Landing Zone as we took their places in the first three helicopters in the formation. In less than a minute, we were heading back to Bearcat.

I’d been in Vietnam less than three days, my first patrol was history, and Whispers and I were still alive.

“That’s not bad,” I thought.

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