A Shau Valley Archives - Page 10 of 22

THIRTY DAYS HAS SEPTEMBER, The Twentieth Night

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...

THE TWENTIETH DAY, 30 Days Has September

by James Strauss | 296 comments

I came awake to the creaking rumble of the tracks working unlubricated against one another as they carried the Ontos atop the mud alongside the Bong Song River. I blinked my eyes rapidly and tried to straighten out against the cramping pain of what seemed to be my...

THE NINETEENTH NIGHT SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September

by James Strauss | 145 comments

I awoke in darkness, bringing up my Gus Grissom watch more for the tiny bit of illumination emanating out through the crystal than to see what time it was. I quickly oriented myself to where I was and how I’d come to be there. I heard the wind and river sounds wafting...