Nam Sense (17 page)

We went to the Angel Saloon at the appointed time and waited across the street. When the place closed, Kim never showed. I was mad at myself for letting a bar girl make a fool of me. But it wasn’t a total loss since I made a few dollars.

As we headed back to the R & R center the streets were empty and quiet. Vietnamese music played softly in the distance. We passed through the city square and a female mute confronted us. She looked like a diseased beggar. Ragged clothes hung loosely on her scrawny frame and her affliction twisted her face into a haunting stare. We tried to walk around her but she blocked our path, grunting as she pointed at Mort’s crotch. Then she stuck her finger in her mouth and sucked on it suggesting oral sex. Her proposition was disgusting. This pitiful woman was so destitute that her source of income was from giving blow jobs.

“No! Number ten!” Mort yelled, nudging her aside. “Go away!”

“Numba one,” she said with a hollow moan. “Uggerrah. Numba one.”

When we turned away, the woman fell to the ground and latched onto Mort’s leg like a toddler clinging to a parent. Mort tried to break free but ended up dragging her along.

“One dolla,” she cried. “One dolla. Uggerrah. Numba one.”

I didn’t know what to do. It was the most pathetic display I had ever witnessed.

“Here,” I said, reaching into my pocket. “If you need money that bad, take this. I’m not going to need it.”

When I handed her the cash, she must have thought I wanted her services. She pushed me against a tree and groped for my pants zipper. I yelled to Mort for help but he was laughing too hard to even move. I quickly wrestled myself free and convinced her that the money was a gift with no obligations. Mort felt the same pity and gave her his money, too. The woman was ecstatic. We did our good deed for the day and felt better than if we had gotten what we paid for, especially if it was from her!

In the morning, our R & R stay ended and we parted company to return to the war. I never saw Mort again. Our brief friendship was typical of the Army life we had come to know. Soldiers with common interests and mutual trust become friends only to have the military separate them forever. I knew I would miss him.

I left Vung Tau anxious to check in at the Camp Evans aid station. While on R & R, I had neglected my infected foot, allowing it to deteriorate to the point where I began limping from the pain. I got as far north as LZ Sally only to find that the Chinook shuttle would not be flying until the next day. The quickest way back to Camp Evans would be by hitchhiking. Since Quoc-Lo 1 was just outside LZ Sally’s front gate, I patiently thumbed for a lift.

Author

Author Art Wiknik in the A Shau Valley. This photo was taken a short time after the Hamburger Hill battle. His platoon has just established a Daytime Defensive Position (DDP).

US Army

A stunning aerial view of Hamburger Hill two months after the battle of May 20, 1969. Wiknik and his comrades attacked up the hillside visible in the upper right portion of this image.

AP/Wide World Photos

101st Airborne Division troops wounded during the 11th and final assault on Dong Ap Bia on the western edge of the A Shau Valley are treated at a small command post waiting helicopter evacuation.

AP/Wide World Photos

A paratrooper wounded during an assault against 3,000-foot Dong Ap Bia, the mountain dubbed “Hamburger Hill” by GIs, grimaces in pain as he awaits evacuation at base camp in the A Shau Valley near the Laos border.

US Army

A chilling scene from hell. Soldiers survey the battlefield after the final assault on Hamburger Hill.

US Army

A medevac lands in the midst of destruction atop Hamburger Hill to evacuate the wounded.

US Army

In the aftermath the Hamburger Hill battle, soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division try to make sense of what they had just experienced.

US Army

High on a mountaintop in the A Shau Valley, FSB Airborne begins to be rebuilt after being overrun only two weeks earlier.

US Army

The 155mm gun position at Firebase Airborne in the A Shau Valley.

Author

101st Airborne troops arriving in a Bell-UH1D “slick” helicopter on Firebase Airborne in the A Shau Valley.