Leeches Archives - James Strauss

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

There existed no corridor through the jungle, like the one that cut through the undergrowth located on the other side of the river. There, the night before, it had been easy to move back and forth through that protected passage to communicate, supply, reinforce,...

The Twenty-Sixth Night, 30 Days Has September,

by James Strauss | 131 comments

I moved across the surface of the mud, with what was left of my scout team just ahead. Fusner and Nguyen trailed just behind. We crawled low, the light of the day beginning to die and provide some sort of camouflage, if not cover. The Ontos lay ahead, sitting like a ...

THE TWENTY-FOURTH NIGHT, SECOND PART, 30 Day Has September

by James Strauss | 218 comments

I’d lost something indefinable, aside from my illegally promoted scout sergeant. I’d lost something like a loyal friend, but it was deeper than that. I moved through the jungle, low and almost on full automatic. How had the young black man eaten his way into my very...

TWENTY-THIRD DAY, 30 Days Has September

by James Strauss | 135 comments

I scrambled, slid and crabbed my way through the low growing debris spread like small islands of living flora all over the mud flat I was trapped on. The NVA gunners had opened up high or were trying to take out the Ontos instead of shooting at a few scavengers trying...

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

by James Strauss | 251 comments

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...