A Shau Valley Archives - Page 10 of 22

THE TWENTY-SECOND DAY, SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September

My chest and face hit the mud at the same time, the impact so hard that water was pressed out of my uniform blouse and sprayed up into a fine mist around me. My helmet and liner landed a good five feet away, but I didn’t care, as I fought to take any air at all into...

THE TWENTY-FIRST NIGHT SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September

by James Strauss | 153 comments

My body remembered each and every turn and drop, as I literally fell toward the fast-approaching bottom of Hill 975. I let the mashed mess of fern fronds, dead leaves, twigs and mud mix possess me like I was a well-massaged larva just popped out and plunging toward...

THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, The Twentieth Night

by James Strauss | 268 comments

The mess of stationery I carried was a collection of soggy, semi-wet and dried water stains holding strands of paper together. The envelopes were in the best shape because I’d rolled them into a tight tube and used one of my extra trouser springs to hold them...

THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, The Twentieth Day Third Part

by James Strauss | 219 comments

There were fifty bodies, and right away everyone in the joined companies knew that the enemy soldiers were not NVA troops, or really soldiers at all. The uniforms were wrong and the ages were wrong. The bodies were of very young men and women dressed in peasant...

THE TWENTIETH DAY SECOND PART, 30 Days has September

by James Strauss | 288 comments

I hit the flattened fern leaves and shoots on my left side, trying to hold my right arm free in case I needed to get to my Colt, and also stay away from having my strapped-on pack catapult me out of the chute. My attempt to control the descent was totally wasted as...