It was full dark by the time the Gunny departed for the old air field with two full platoons and parts of the other two. I’d made a deal with the devil to get back a dead body which went against all logic but for no good reason I could think of made a strange sense to me. The man had put in, and the man’s body was going to get out. Either we got him across the river in the dark or that was it, because there would be no evacuation come dawn. The daylight would make it too potentially expensive to put a chopper down on the other side of the river without full time fire support on and from both banks of the river. And that was not going to happen unless the other companies in the battalion really were racing to reinforce my own company’s situation, which I now knew was not in the cards.
I crouched down with a can of ham and mothers. The food was there, and my hands moved to guide the metal fork I carried in my little belt case, but I could only go through the motions of eating. I chewed and tried to swallow, but it wasn’t working. I brought the can down and stared at it in the vague twilight darkness. I looked over toward the river and noticed that it had a very faint and unmoving iridescence to it. The water was moving fast because I could hear it, but the faint glow just hung there like there were strange dim lightbulbs deep under the water.
Jim,
What was the name of the soldier who carried the .45 ? I am from Brattleboro, which is actually in Vermont within spitting distance of New Hampshire. I was also assigned to 326 Engineers during the Desert Storm timeframe.
Joe,
The name mention in the book is fictitious as are the other names
and there are obvious reason as the story unfolds that I won’t divulge.
Thank you for your support.
semper fi,
Jim
I’ve submitted comment on this chapter just so you know I reading and following along.
Don’t know what’s happening to them as I don’t see it posted anywhere.
This is the first one I’ve seen from you JT. So, I don’t know. Checked spam but it was not there.
Thanks for trying and thanks for finally getting through…
Semper fi,
Jim
Anxiously waiting for your next segment. I appreciate your sharing your time in Nam. My time was spent on and off the carriers and in DaNang at our “Spads” (VAW-13) repair facility there and heard first hand from others what they went thru, but your presentation adds color to the deeper emotional feelings of the men who were in the “bush”.
Thank you Bernie. Really appreciate hearing from the guys who were nearby and getting it without
being out in it…and the care and feelings coming back from all of you.
Thanks from me and lot of the other real deal guys and gals who come on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, Great story always looking forward to the next installment. Drafted in the army July 1969. Almost a Marine at the induction station everyone to my left was drafted in the marines. I spent my time in Germany. A lucky break. I don’t know how I would’ve fared if I went to Nam. Wishing you and your compadres good rendezvous in Kansas.
Pat
Thanks Patrick. You’d have done great in the Nam if you’d lived but the memories
can be a bitch forever after something like that. Thanks for the kind words written on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
I haven’t read any of your books and happened to find this part on Facebook. I was interested to know if the fellow mentioned as “Zippo” had a last name of Smith? The one that I’m familiar with was in the Army and now lives in Thailand.
Thanks for the question but I’ll wait in revealing real names until I am through the three volumes.
I don’t need a whole ton of ‘fact checking’ while I am trying to put it all together…
thanks for your interest though and for writing it on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
LT, you got me all wound up, waiting for the book to come out. I thought my time over there was bad, but hell, I just thought. Hope all of you have a great time in Kansas, over the 4th.
Kansas was wonderful and I appreciate you commenting on it. Wonderful guys and some gals too.
It was a great delight to be in Winfield too where everyone around us was so damned neat.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, are you releasing this as you write it? Is it already written? Are you releasing it in 3 volumes…1st ten days…second ten days…third ten days? Can I buy the whole book…all thirty days?
Thanks for your support……Shelton
I have released Fist Ten Days
Writing and posting Second Ten days as being written.
Second ten days probably published in early August.
Too many pages to have One Volume.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim you brought back some similar although not quite as extreme memories of our 52 day operation in the mountains outside the Ashau 2/327 A co 101’st Abn. I remember having to go back later a day or so to recover our dead from previous fire fights. From your position as a platoon leader a very tough decision. With of course the thought in mind alway’s that we never wanted to leave anybody behind. I also remember the nva wounding our point or slack man pourposefully because they knew that we would make every effort to retrieve them. I certainly hope that you don’t don’t carry the fact that Jones who joined you to retrieve tex was killed. That had to be very hard to deal with. Our platoon sgt. Watson Baldwin one of the best we’d ever had we were like his kids he wouldn’t cry in front of us when one of his boys was killed,but he would go back to the co. cp to let it out. Know that you were doing what you had to do to retrieve some ones Son back home for closiour. God Bless you for your Extremely brave leadership. Semper-Fi Jim have a great together with all the brother’s in Kansas. And thanks for your continued writings brings healing to many vets as of course you know when we got back to the world we had to box it up nobody wanted to hear it.
Thanks Tim for the depth of meaning in your comment. We did have a wonderful time in Kansas
and I met some classic ‘good to go’ types I will stay in contact with. Thanks for the compliment in your words, too…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, I have previously made negative comments about your book. This was based on my personal experiences in the Marines in Vietnam in 65-66. I never saw or even heard of a complete disaster of an entire company as the one you were inserted into. Also I could not imagine the complete isolation that the rest of command seemed to have left you in. In my time there were just too many people up and down the chain that were on the net for that to happen. Having said that, I have read your book with great interest. You truly are a gifted writer and your ability to recall is amazing. I have no doubt of your experiences, your bravery and sacrifice. I share many of the same “ghosts” from that place and I wish I had just a bit of your ability to put them to paper. Semper Fi Sir, God bless.
I completely understand Jim. This kind of shit is just not really believable.
When I was in the hospital for all that time and through the surgeries
afterward I had a hard time believing any of it myself.
If only it could have been consigned to a bad dream.
You don’t dream parts of your belt buckle being dug out of your intestines,
though, and then having that piece given to you by a proud surgeon impressed with his work….
and upset enough that it made me throw up.
I got stuck in a throwaway unit sent to die in the worst place they could imagine to send us.
It was a pretty good choice for command because there was no mercy back at command.
They only had one mission and that was not to go out into what they knew was out there in the shit.
Some of the things I went through have been shared by others on here and I have been surprised at
how many guys had really rough tours that were not that dissimilar.
One of the survivors of my company reached me yesterday with a private message not wanting to
be read on here. He said he’d heard of the book from a friend and wondered.
He got the book and knew it was me, and us, what we
went through. It was good to read those few words.
It did happen and and I continue to live with it but I’m better now…
Semper fi, and thanks most sincerely.
Jim
Mr. Strauss,
I’m fascinated with your book. I can’t wait for the remaining days to onfold. Your story has kept me glued to the pages. Thank you for sharing your days in Vietnam. After finishing the 16th day part, I feel that you have taken me with you on such a terrible trip into the Valley of Death. I feel your pain, your tiredness, your anguish, your hopelessness, your loss of your men. This must have been a very difficult thing to write, for the fact that you had to relive those memories. Thank you again for your service and for your bravery in telling your story. I have a few questions. Is the airfield you write about the A Luoi airfield? Did you ever again see the commander that sent you off into this journey?
The commanding general became the base commander of Camp Pendleton,
where I waited to be processed out on disability.
He was the dignitary at the parade they held for me when I was given
my highest award for valor at the base.
He pinned the medal on my chest, probably never knowing it was me
who he willingly tried to send into death.
I said nothing.
Later we worked out next to one another at the base gym. We never talked.
He died of a heart attack a few years back.
Semper fi, and thank you so much for the kind words.
Jim
That is so heavy shit you went through! Luck and the good Lord above! I love your writing! I can only try to imagine what combat would be like. And I know it’s ugly! I work with Marines at Camp Pendleton USMC brig! Good boys who made some mistakes…Ak’s and M-16’s is the only music I heard today. Another good man died today. We’ll bring him home, maybe have a parade. They spray and pray but we shoot straight!
Thanks Dan, much appreciate the kind words here.
Semper fi, and thanks for all you are doing out there…
Jim
LT, these writings are entirely believable to the 10% who are combat Marines. Those of us who have crossed & recrossed the rivers and have climbed & slid back down the greasy mountain trails in the monsoon rain. Those who have heard the bullwhip crack by their ears & know what it meant. Those of us who have embraced the suck believe.
You are the guys I’m writing to. I expect to take some hits and I’ve gotten them.
Thank God not from any of the men I saw combat with or any of the ‘real’ guys like you.
How can regular citizens, even those in the rear (although they had to suspect)
really understand, believe or accommodate what that living hell was?
They can’t do it so they go right at the source.
I knew it when I started so I can handle it.
Thank you though. Means a lot having you guys at my back…
Semper fi,
Jim
I was drafted in 1970, did not see combat, great respect for those that did. I drink coffee with a group of guys my age and older every morning. Ninety per cent have military experience mostly because of the draft. In my children’ s age group probably less than five percent. The younger general population simply do not understand sacrifices that have been made in serving our country. I am a member of our local American Legion rifle team. I’m 69 and I’m the “baby”. Look at the Memorial Day pictures in small town papers all over the country. I know it would never work today but maybe some kind of one year national service requirement would be a good idea.
Thanks Harold for commenting on here with your ideas. I am glad that you did not end up in the Nam.
I’m also glad that you support vets so sincerely. We all thank you!
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim, you open this segment with the only ‘proof, or validation’ of why you were there….at this point, nothing else seems quite real, it could all be a dream, a nightmare for sure, but still a dream…except that “Tex” was there…he was waiting, and he did what he did because he knew you would come for him, one way or the other….you wouldn’t leave him….everything else up to now has been a day to day existence. Oftentimes, moment to moment, not knowing, and sometimes not caring if you lived or died..you just want to have something go right..you don’t expect to live, you are way beyond that hope…but you know that getting Tex is the most important thing in your world right now…it’s the only thing you can actually control…if the others won’t join you…fuck em….feed em beans… and then for the briefest of those ‘moments’…. you had an Allie..”Jones”….out of nowhere…out of the darkness, he came, a young Marine filled with Honor….you were not alone….Semper Fi Lt, would have been proud to serve with you…
Thanks Larry for the usual deep comment backed by lots of logic and farsightedness.
I much appreciate taking my time to go over every word.
Semper fi,
Jim
Had to read 3-4 times to even try to grasp the situation. I don’t know how you made it. A lesser man would have folded by now. Thank You Sir.
Luck played a huge role in all that Mike. I was sure at the time and now I’m certain.
Thanks for the compliment, however, and for writing it on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Do not remember when I have enjoyed reading a book as much as the one you are writing here. Reading the comments section in like icing on the cake. I hope your July 4 weekend bash in Kansas is a rip roaring success for you, the other Vietnam vets, and others who attend. Wish I could be there as a fly on the wall. Sincere thanks to all who served and endured so much.
Wish you could be there too. It should be interesting and I have no pre-conceived ideas about it at all.
Just looking forward to it. Don’t really know why. Meet some great guys and try not to make an idiot of myself.
Thanks for the words and especially for writing them on here where everyone can see…
Semper fi,
Jim
Hi Jim, Another great read and can’t wait for the next update to the story. I started thinking about these pages and how many who have similar experiences as you often say so here on these chat areas. It got me to wonder, do any of the men you served with ever comment about your story on here? Do you ever talk to any of them? Or was it more along the lines of , I made it out alive and never want to see these guys again? There is always more to the story and I was just wondering your thoughts on this. If you don’t wish to answer that is ok too. Semper Fi sir
One private and one on here. I did not remember their names and I was chagrined by that information.
Both of them spoke highly about my ability to recall and both of them wished me well without wanting to
be recognized. That’s it so far. Thanks for the question. Some of it plays out in the last book, of course,
and then the book after when I detail what it was really like to come home.
Semper fi,
Jim
Glad to hear you got to speak with them all these years later. I kinda guessed that this information might come to pass in the final chapters but glad to hear you managed to connect with some of your men.
Thanks Robert. Not much resolution of anything there. Too much damage.
That I can write at all is probably pretty amazing…
Semper fi,
Jim
If I was writing fiction, Jurgens would come back on the bridge and throw you a new rope, or maybe show up with a fire team in the slick that comes for you. Real is not always as cool as fiction and I don’t have the pencil….so…..I wait to see with everyone else. A great story Jim
Most people are put together seemingly simply but with great complexity. Most
people who end up breaking rules or start out that way are ‘sorry’ they perform in the manner they did.
We are constructed to try to stay within a social perimeter not established by ourselves…so we are
constantly surging against that social order. Thanks for your thoughts about where everything should go.
Semper fi,
Jim
Can I get the book
Yes, Jack, you can get it on Amazon or B&N and the second one should be out in August.
Thanks for the compliment in asking. You can also come to Winfield Kansas and get one at the rendezvous.
Semper fi,
Jim
Happy 50th Anniversary. Go buy Mary some flowers. Write her a letter and don’t forget to write FREE in quotes on the upper right corner corner of the envelope. Use that new pen.
Hippies in Golden Gate Park welcome the Summer of Love on the first day of that season, June 21, 1967.
In 1967, nearly 100,000 free-spirited adventurers congregated in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood near Golden Gate Park and created some of the era’s most memorable music, art, fashion and literature. Wearing flowers in their hair, people danced in the streets.
22 Americans died that day.
By Carl Nolte
San Francisco Chronicle
Yeah, there was that strange ‘free’ thing, even thought I tried stamps in the beginning to try to collect them.
That didn’t work. Thanks you for the usual depth and meaning in your comment. Much appreciate as I wade on through.
Semper fi,
Jim
Well…Jim…another excellent read!! I think that Nguyen has your back and obviously you made it out…don’t quite understand Jurgens, hopefully he went for help…somehow Jones seemed like so many that died way too young…things just happen in combat that are hard to comprehend after the fact…but like the heart that can’t be unbroken, the psyche can’t be unbroken either…once you have the “knowledge” of combat then you see the world through a different set of eyes…you wonder if it was luck, or skill, or divine intervention that you survived…we were all just scared kids in those days…you were true to yourself in going back after Tex and your leadership was the “lead from the front” type that would make men follow you…Nguyen knew from the first few days…that is why he has your back…Sorry about Harvey…it’s hard to lose old friends…I didn’t mean to ramble…as usual, I anxiously await your next segment.
I wonder what kind of a guy I really was. I don’t think we are formed yet by 23. I think we are most reacting to
life based upon whatever foundation we’ve managed to paste together in the preceding years. Then Vietnam. Then the company.
Then the violence and death and popping out of it to come back to this make believe place. Wow. What was I and what did I
become. I guess that’s what the writing is all about. That I’ve been able to make it as a writer at all is still hard to believe,
once I learned that only about one percent of writers overall make any money…much less a living. There is no predicting
accurately but plenty of predicting to be made. There I was and here I am. Thanks for the cogent and well thought out comment Mark, as usual.
Semper fi,
Jim
Well, I don’t think we are totally formed at 23 but you obviously had core morals that were above most in your unit. You were on a constant roller coaster ride of the shit hitting the fan and you or someone else saving your bacon. I will agree with an earlier comment that you had no luck at all. My brother always said the same of me…he said that I could fall in a pool full of boobs and come out sucking my thumb…sorry for the crudeness but just thought I would try to make you smile…so much for cogence…
I wish I knew what ‘core morality’ was because I sure did not feel like I had much of it over there. I was
either killing someone, getting someone killed or thinking about it all the damned time!
Thanks for the kind words, thoughts and writing them on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
I guess my thought on your “core morality” was because you went back to get Tex. Not everyone would have done that, especially at the great risk that it was. Just a testament to your leadership and “brother looking after brother” attitude. That was all there was back then…since it was hard to know what your were fighting for…you went thinking you were fighting for your country, honour, an so forth…but it all just came down to survival…for you and your men…hope you have a grand time over the 4th…I will honour you and all vets in absentia
I loved Tex in the short time I knew him. At least I think I did. So many times it is hard to
give full value to someone until they are not there anymore. I did not go back because I loved him.
I went back because I was afraid. I was trying to gain and hold some kind of control over the company
so I could survive. Naked truth. No medal for that one. I went back as an example of leadership, not
because I was one. I was running for my life…
Semper fi, and thanks for thinking the better thoughts about me…
Jim
Another great read. Sorry to hear about your buddy. I have lost dogs and a cat. I miss them all but I miss my cat even after 15 years. Just can’t bear to lose another so that is it for me. Strange how we provide a good home but they provide so much more in a few moments away from reality.
Animals do not live in the same world of duplicity that humans must survive in. Their competition is different.
They fight for survival too but in different ways. Then they encounter us. Humans. And it gives them pause as their minds
are reformatted to try to deal with this mystery in their lives. God, but we have to look funny to them and yet they
take us into their tribe willingly. Part of it is the food, I am sure. Always there and not too bad in variety and quality.
They give us their direct predatory truth and humans are starved for truth. When an animal likes us we believe them. We don’t really
believe other humans like us. Need us, yes. Humans had trouble with real beliefs but there’s no sense on going on about that
because nobody can talk about it. Yes, I miss the truth of Harvey really liking me and there’s no replacement for that.
I will get another cat because I want something like that back.
Thanks for the comment and making me think…
Semper fi,
Jim
Sadness boils up because folks like Jones are gone so fast, and that memory of a loss sandwiched in with life now and seeing another loss. No explanation is possible because we can’t explain sovereignty. If I could I would sit quietly nearby while you work trying in a small way to fill in for your companion of so many years. Condolences again, Sir.
My bad news is no travel for me right now either. No blood in the pee; but unstable angina is really slowing my step. Thank you for what you are doing, even if it doesn’t make complete sense right now. You are a good man. Poppa Joe
I shall miss you. Personally and right here too. You are delight in your expression of intellect, emotional foundation and care.
I must appreciate it and sitting nearby while you expounded away would be blissful at any time in any place I am certain.
I shall stand by in life to one day make such circumstance a reality. Thank you for everything you do for me and on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
It is my honor Sir, serving is a blessing in itself with the added bonus of kinship with another soul. As I thought about your work and it’s eventual conclusion, in Church of all places, there are a few of good troops still around you while none of the sorry ones, except the medic with a round in his butt, has seen their untimely departure from the stage. Might be the anticipation of more good protoplasm leaving the scene bothering me. I pray more of them make it to the rear than not. Your work is very valuable, so I know it has to be finished to accomplish a cleansing that you seek. Poppa. You have an open invitation to our home it would be an honor.
Thanks Poppa, you are one helluva guy.
Semper fi,
Jim
One is beginning to think that you sit and try to come up with the worse scenario before you start writing the next chapter.
No surprise with Gunny’s actions, he wants to live through the war. Some surprise with Jurgens and Sugar Daddy making a temporary truce to appease the CO. No surprise that Jurgens wanted Sugar Daddy taking the South end nearer to the enemy fire.
A surprise when Sugar Daddy offers to go on the bridge to help retrieve you. Jurgens goes to show Sugar Daddy he can’t outdo him, but he knows he will draw fire when on the bridge. They both bolt when the enemy fire starts getting closer.
The rope is obviously cut from enemy fire and that is when the remaining crew on the bridge, make tracks because they believe that you and your team will never make it back across the river. Surprise!
One can now understand why you have been down on yourself so much, both with the story telling and the negative comments. However, what has really come to light for you, is the fact that you can still keep going, no matter how hard things get, you even seem to be proud of that fact and that is good!
My deep person “J.” You do think. You do write. And you do make sense, although sometimes my mind feels like a bit of a wet pretzel when you are done
with one of your comments. I always want to say “yes,” but then don’t really understand what I am saying yes to. Hmmmm. Deep shit for deep thinking
and I am doing that right now. Thanks, I think, as usual, I know…
Semper fi,
Jim
Brattleboro is in vermont ,on the n.h. boarder . a mistake somewhere
A mistake of my mind. I don’t know why it imprinted that way on my memory
because it was burned in emotionally but then life can be so that way. We see it one way and then
remember it another. Yes, I checked on the Internet but not until after I wrote the sequence and was
then called on it. I kept checking, like the Internet and geography was wrong.
thanks for the comment,
Semper fi,
Jim
I aint going to make you feel bad like some talking about you writing they were not there I was aim proud to know you Semper Fi Lt. a grunt sgt. first battalion 7th Marines
I really appreciate hearing that Benton. Thank you so very much…
Semper fi,
Jim
You got me again, had a similar situation after being shot down in Happy Valley. The past is always on your shoulder waiting to jump out in front of you . Semper Fi Jim.
Thank you Russel. Always nice to hear from valley kin! It was a helluva time.
Thanks for the nice words and the thoughts…
Semper fi,
Jim
James Strauss, how much time passed from the time you graduated from OBAC at Fort Sill until the general with whom you had ” slight ” differences had you immediately sent out, that night, to the Marine rifle company ?
30 days went by because I was given leave for my wife to deliver her baby just before I went over.
Semper fi,
Jim
To me it is amazing you were able to perform and function as you did without any prior combat experience. Your skills in map reading and calling in artillery fires as a ” new shiny bar LT “, under the worst possible conditions are incredible. No wonder you graduated so high in your class. I graduated from OBAC in the mid 70’s, RC, and I just am flabbergasted how you took charge and performed. My will always be off to you. Now, enough praise, please get Vol II out soon !
Thank you Tom. I had one big advantage, other than the fact that I was pretty obviously good at calling in artillery.
I had never seen the effect of artillery fire when poorly or badly called that landed on friendly forces. To me, it was ‘out there’ stuff that I
used to blow up the enemy. Plenty of men and units came to fear artillery and air simply because if not very accurately delivered it is quick and
viciously brutal in causing injury and death. Thanks for the neat comment and for the care in making it on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Keep on keepin on. I thought I had some bad luck, but I am going to keep my mouth shut from now on! Your here, which means you made it, but Man!
I used to mine sweep roads, plus other things, and every morning I would wonder if today was the day. Same at night. Just sitting and waiting. I was trained as a heavy equipment mechanic and learned combat engineering OJT.
You are a long way from artillery, but your making it. Keep humpin. It may not turn out the way you want it, but it will NEVER be because you didn’t try.
Take care
Thanks Mike. Yeah, there was that waiting thing, even when moving, even in actual combat. Where’s it coming from and
why him and not me and maybe me next….and nobody giving a shit about me getting it except me because they are too worried
about them. Real life. Real combat.
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim another great segment. When I got to checking Tex, had to read that part over and over….
It was dark and anything can be anything in the dark, particularly with little sleep (I knew though).
I’ll be waiting for the next segment.
Thanks Mike, I much appreciate the encouragement and compliment.
Semper fi,
Jim
And so it goes. Another nail biting chapter. It’s not hard to understand why the passing of Harvey made this difficult to write. The bright side, if there is one, could be it helped you recall details that may have otherwise not have surfaced. Take your time. We’re all on your side and will wait patiently as you sort things out. In the meantime thanks for the Harvey link! Now I have something worthwhile to read while waiting. Looks like it’s time to start building a James Strauss section to my library. It’s been years since I’ve seen an author I felt worthy of adding permanently. What a time for the rope to give out. I know you can’t answer now, but I’m hoping Jurgens went for help and a plan to get you back across
Thanks Jack. I am having an editor put together The Bering Sea right now. It’s a rather long rendition of another of
those whacked out CIA missions I ended up on. The Bering Sea. You want to know where there’s gold in the Bering Sea
area then forget that television show. It ain’t in the sand on the bottom. You’ll have an idea when you read the book
though because that gold saved the mission…and then the crew of the ship…and then gave me my real start in the after-life.
The life after the CIA. Thanks for sticking with me. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Not if I can help it, anyway.
I don’t know why God stuck all these adventures in front of me but He sure as hell did. Maybe just to tell the stories.
Semper fi,
Jim
Thanks Jim for the heads up. I’ll be looking for it as I search for more of your books. Very authors are capable of writing in a way of making a person feel as if they are living the experience along with them. You are one of a select few. You have been well Blessed. Keep it coming as best you can!
Thanks Jack. I am busy not just writing this but getting the first book to a ‘real’ publisher and also
to getting other books I’ve never gotten out up on Amazon.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was drafted 1965 & left 1967 missed combat but that don’t really bother me. Enjoy reading about it. I went by the old saying never volunteer for anything.
Try to ‘volunteer’ for the right things. Like mail call or maybe R&R.
Semper fi,
Jim
Very emotional! So if the rope wasn’t cut, what happened? Another great read! Trying to do the right thing keeps biting you in the butt Jim! Much like real life! At times! Semper Fi my friend!
Yes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Except it is not. Maybe the road…but before you get there God steps in
and says “well hell, Marine, you had the right idea,” and bails you out and sends you to limbo where you get to hang out with
kids, dogs and cats waiting…which for a Marine is a lot like heaven…
Semper fi, and thank you.
Jim
I’d bet Nguyen has a plan too !!
Captivating reading James..
SEMPER Fi
Thanks Sgt. I am back in the groove and headed for Kansas to do I don’t know what there.
A book signing? Me? I shake my head with the weird shit I come up with. In the middle of a corn field
with a card table and a bottle of rum….like a B movie. What next? A biplane flys down like from North
by Northwest?
Semper fi,
Jim
I love the idea of a card table in a corn field. You drink it straight or mix it?
You have a strange sense of humor Paul…like my own.
The booze part I can only imagine as I had to give that up a bit ago.
Thanks for writing on here and enjoying the mental gymnastics you are reading…
Semper fi,
Jim
Just sorry ass people is all I can say.
Just people afraid and seemingly alone…
Combat is like that…
Jim
True, bad comment.
I am trying to figure that one out.
Semper fi,
Jim
Your right, bad remark I made.
Not to worry, Bobby…
Semper fi,
Jim
There Day is coming I know what I would do. And they know to. My men would not leave me. Black or white we were brothers all together.
It took time. But yes, that can and did happen. And then they die.
And you die. Just a little bit here and there, but the pieces keep falling, to hit
the deck all around; and you look down, wondering who they fell from because
you can’t feel the falling…you can only see them lying there…
Semper fi,
Jim
You always leave me hanging, waiting, waiting and waiting for more. This is the best book i have ever read on Vietnam or any war. I turned eighteen in 1972, however I had friends and one brother, who were in Nam and I watched it on TV; with TV being only the things the government wanted us to see.. I read alot of books about it and your’s are the best and most well written.
It’s not just about Vietnam. It’s about life. It explains so much about the difference between reality (denied)and the
phenomenal world (accepted but vaguely flawed). It explains what happened aboard that destroyer where seven guys died.
It’s all in the Thirty Days, what was really going on aboard that ship…not that the truth of that circumstance will ever
make it the light of day. You are being attracted by a patina of truth you’ve never heard before…but you kinda knew
was there…welcome to the real world…
Semper fi,
Jim
On my third read I noticed that you used Sugardaddy in a couple of sentences and Sugar Daddy through the rest of the chapter.
“I need Jurgens, Sugardaddy and the rest of the team, here and now,” I ordered Stephens.
I waited while the men gathered around me. Jurgens and Sugardaddy came with their Marines.
So noted and corrected. Thanks for your eyes, Richard.
James , I’ve been waiting on the new segment. Its good
I have fingers crossed that Jurgens and crew just pulled back to some cover. Not abandoning you. From here it seems there has been a change in his attitude since you saved his ass.
Jurgens was inscrutable. The fucking Gunny was beyond inscrutable. Everyone in the damned company was smarter than me!
And, in many cases, had more sense…
Semper fi,
Jim
I found myself speeding through this segment and went back to read it 3 times and find things I missed the previous times.
DAMN DAMN and DAMN again. In hind sight it was good you hadn’t depended on the rope seeing as it parted from the time being beat in the water. My first thought was why hadn’t the gunny deployed the 106 you now had ammo for at the first firing from the enemy? I see a possible sinister motive for that. Jones should of stayed back but understand why he chose not to.
I can relate all too well on the loss of Harvey though I am more a dog person. They become family as they know when you need them and are always there without fail. More loyal then people and don’t judge us. With the chapter here and having to relive it with the loss of Harvey as well had to be a tough one for sure. Thank you for taking us along on your journey through the hell you lived as only you can.
Tex and Harvey and then that poor kid…and Harvey. How does life do that? How can
the past and present weave a braid into the hair of life like that? How. God damn it.
I don’t know whether God is encouraging me or dissuading me. He knows criticism and
harsh circumstance may be coming because of what I am writing here maybe. I don’t know.
Animals give us warm comfortable truth (sometimes harsh) because they don’t conduct their
lives in a form of communicative deception. Predator and prey…and that’s it.
Semper fi
JIM
Damn it all. Damn it all. Damn it all!! You’re wringing me out here, Strauss.
I don’t know anyone better suited to be wrung out than you Conway. A class act, even when holed up in
your residence and not out there like Charles Kuralt…
Semper fi,
Jim
I’ve typed three short novels and deleted them. The only thing I feel I can say is I’m sorry.
They are all still up there Joe. Sit back down and go to work. The three will actually be better than before…
and send them here. What the hell…
Semper fi
Jim
Funny how things work out. On my way to work this morning driving the 20 miles down the country highway, I pass the same little village crossroads I pass 6 days a week. Only there was something new something different past the crossroads were American flags lining the highway for what would be miles past my turn off. These flags are for a fallen soldier who will be buried today, at the young age of 21. Leaving behind a fiance and unborn child along with countless friends and family no doubt grieving and distraught as this young man had survived his deployment. He had survived, and was a good soldier from what I am told.
My comments I wanted to type yesterday never would read the way I wanted, today, this morning on the drive to work it clicked.
Thank You, Thank you for your service and sacrifice. Thank you for taking on that high price of being forever broken so that the rest of us could live free and complain about how bad we have it here in America. Thank you for the continued service in writing this book as from reading the comments it is doing great things in helping some others heal. From the bottom of my heart I am sorry for the way you guys were thrown into a meat grinder and then brought back home and expected to just leave it all there. I’m sorry for the mistreatment of troops as they came home to be ridiculed by people that have no clue what they had been through.
I must say Joe, that your comments reached me. I have not been at my all time best of late
and your ‘apology’ speaks more to your caliber, worth, character and honor…those very things most of us trained
to go out and defend and fight to keep. America, the way you resemble America and make it up. Like wondering in the movie
Saving Private Ryan, if I was Ryan, whether I measured up to living a good enough life to justify others dying for me…sort of
a thing. Thank you for what you wrote and thank you for the reading. It is impossible to gauge what help the books may be.
I didn’t start out to write them for that purpose and when I started in 1970 I could not continue. I wrote in a closet with
the door closed which seems really whacked and strange now. No wonder the notes are hard to decipher! I’m better now but then
I’ve heard guys trying to get out of institutions say the same thing. I’m here and I’m reading what you write and it is making
me get through this Saturday afternoon with a smile. I printed it and taped it to the bottom of my monitor where Harvey used
to lay. It is so easy to forget that there’s a fiber and core out there that remembers and really does care….
Thank you.
Semper fi,
Jim
It has to be hard to remember so much. Sorry to hear about Harvey it’s amazing what big personalities cats have. They leave a big space when they’re gone.
Thanks Daniel. There is a lot of detail I miss. I was just reminded, by a guy who left a kind of nice shitty review on Amazon,
that there had to have been a whole lot more radio traffic than I am reporting…and he’s right. He also mentioned that there had to be a lot
more verbal communications going on between the characters and he was right there too. I don’t know how to write it all or provide more
detail. I can only tell the story and it’s not much of a believable one either. I hated for years the question about how long I was there.
I spent 12 times more time in the hospital than I spent in the Nam. I felt bad about that…like I hadn’t stayed long enough, like I could
have made up for a lot of what I did wrong. I now know that there’s no right. There was no real way to do better. You can only do better
in retrospect. Scared children as nutty as fruitcakes after only a short time. All I can do is keep on going with the best rendition of
what I come up with from the jumbled mess of a broken mindset.
Semper fi,
Jim
You threw the dice and got ‘snake eyes’! Another operation
in deep shit.
I told a neighbor about your book and he bought the Kindle version. Now he is anxious for the second book to come out.
A few corrections.
The water was moving fast because I could hear it, but the faint glow just hung there like there (were) strange dim lightbulbs deep under the water.
I was heartened by what I felt was some kind of group support but I (was) also still afraid of most of them, and I was going to be going straight out into dead darkness in front of them.
I realized (t)here was going to be nothing further accomplished by arguing with either Jurgens or Sugar Daddy.
It was a great gun. I was going to get Tex, and if (it) took expending every round in the Colt’s magazine then that’s what I was ready to do.
Again, much gratitude for your sharp eyes.
Thank you Richard.
Semper fi,
Jim
The point is four, pick em up and roll again. Side bets all around and the stakes are doubled. Luck is on your side.
That was my real talent and it was God-given and natural. No matter what, there was no quit in me. I never saw that as
a benefit or a good thing through the years. I had that talent, if one is to refer to it as that. I kept going no matter
what. I really knew no other way even though I really did believe I was going to die.
Semper fi,
Jim
Fuck!!! That is all.
That is enough William. Like “it don’t mean nuthin.”
Semper fi,
Jim
There it is again Lt. That damned phrase I have learned to curse. “It don’t mean nuthin.” The hell it don’t! It’s so fraught with meaning that it hurts every time I see it. But I still thank you for introducing me to it. But “it” does have great meaning Lt. It really does in the scheme of things. Take care Lt..Wes..
Yes Wes, it does take a real combat veteran to interpret that phrase. It don’t mean nuthin means everything, of course.
Thanks for the compliment in your writing and writing about it on here.
Semper fi,
Jim
Fantastic read, I wish it would go on forever. What an incredible experience to go thru. What sorry human beings we are in this world with along with a some good ones
Nah, we are just human with all the foibles revealed under unsurvivable stress and intense terror.
Acceptance comes late if it all to the foundations we are all created upon.
But we will get there, because we can reflect on our own behavior and those coming
later can actually internalize and change…hence the story…
Semper fi,
Jim
So riveted to the story! Great read! Please continue!
I am continuing, with the help of comments like your own.
Semper fi, and thank you,
Jim
I know what it’s like to lose a feline buddy, and I know how hard it was to push through to get this chapter out . I hurt and grieve with you over that.
Was Cpl Jones introduced earlier? His appearance on the bridge made my mind take a side trek trying to recall him, while his sudden death hit me in the gut.
Thanks Ssgt…go back a bit and you’ll find Jones.
Thanks for the comment and your usual patter on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
The good, they die young. This chapter wrenched my heart out.
A lot of them died young over there.
Thanks for the comment and the heartfelt compliment for the work…
Semper fi,
Jim
War is hell,they can take that to the bank. Wow is all I can say. Semper fi
Thank you Roger. That was a nice rather laconic compliment and of course a statement of truth to go with it.
Semper fi,
Jim
Now this complicates matters more. Looks like someone sold you down the river. Can’t wait to see what happens next. Wonder where all your backup and reinforcements are?
I know you made it back though.
The great unknown. Every day and every night…what the hell was going to come next.
Fear as the unchanging currency of life through it all, of course.
Semper fi,
Jim
their is no way Nguyen is going to let you go it on your own.I knew you had gained Jurgens as a team member Sugar Daddy had been with gunny on his side. I can remember at night that they thought we where giants the rounds would be way high or maybe it just looked that way when you got your head down eating mud. this just keeps getting better all the time. having a hard time waiting for this part of the book will get out.the doc. just shut me down from going to Kansas they found blood in my pee and they have all kinds of test for me to go through. really wanted to go
So sorry about the blood Dave. There are a lot of things that cause that and many are not serious.
I do so hope that not serious shit wins this round.
I am sorry you won’t be there in Kansas.
Thanks for the words about the current segment….
Semper fi,
Jim
Jim! These words of yours bring so many emotions to my surface and anger is taking point.Certainly not the Corps in 66/67/68 that I was fortunate to live in, despite Sir Charles trying to end my career. Waiting to see who pays.
God, I am sorry about the Sir Charles thing. Hope you are going to be okay.
Happy to have you reading and active here though, no matter what. Thank you for
telling it straight on here…
Semper fi,
Jim
Al – You and I were in the same Corps. I can’t believe the SHITBIRDS Jim was surrounded by. Thank God he did have “a few good men” close to him! Semper Fi to all the Marines who served with honor. Graduating from MCRD gives you the “title” Marine”……..serving with a “warriors heart” (even when filled with gut wrenching fear) MAKES you a Marine. I am sad to say many fall short.
Lot of great warriors in that company. Some not such great guys or men, though but I can
never fault their willingness and ability when the shit hit the fan. Thanks for your comment.
Semper fi,
Jim
Awesome read, but you threw me a curve ball. I thought Zippo would hang tight for you! On Pins and nails
waiting for the next installment. Great job.
Yes, do wait for the next installment. Zippo was true from beginning to end so it wasn’t that.
All I can say right now. Thanks for writing on here and the compliment buried between the words.
Semper fi,
Jim
I was hopping to be wrong about my earlier comment. Unbelievable!
Yes, Sherm, I wish you had gotten that one right! But real life…you know.
Anyway, thanks for commenting here about it…
Semper fi,
Jim
Dam you can’t get a brake !!!
It was that kind of time Harold. Life can do that without any help or encouragement at all.
When people want to go out and visit current war or civil disturbance zones in the world I don’t
know what to tell them. You can’t tell them not to go but you can’t tell them to go either,
unless you don’t like them…
Semper fi,
Jim
Not sure any more excrement can hit the fan.
And you leave us hanging (with yourself) one more time….until the next vividly painted cliffhanger.
Until you pen your next episode, nothing left for me to do mentally but sit patiently with you and Nguyen on the east bank of the river while you come up with the next plan…
Thanks for standing by Walter. I will try to get the next segment out a little faster.
Semper fi,
Jim
Like your first book, this 2nd volume is full of suspense. Waiting for the published book.
Thanks Edward, for liking the work and waiting for more.
Semper fi,
Jim
Intense,insightful, and real. Good read LT and worth the wait. Hope you’ve got the baggage packed. Semper fi
Thanks Staley, I am on my way to Kansas one day soon for the unlikely event of a Viet Vet Combat Rendezvous.
I am not sure Winfield is ready for us.
Semper fi,
Jim
LT, I hope no one sets off any unplanned fireworks at the gathering or Winfield may see its first mad minute.
Unplanned fireworks. I am chuckling over that comment, I think.
Thank you for making it and I hope you make it out to the show…
Semper fi,
Jim
Jesus Jim…this suspense is killing me! Now I’ll be like a junkie needing a fix till you get the next chapter out!
Semper Fi, Pat
Thanks Pat, that’s a great compliment although I don’t write the segments that way.
I just let it come out and try to stop at about eight or nine pages in Word.
Thank you most sincerely,
Semper fi,
Jim