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For the most part, we lived in two man fox holes. We would
stay awake, and on guard for an hour, while the man we shared the hole with
slept. Then we would wake him up, and he would stand guard for an hour while we
slept. Naturally, we were exhausted, and the hours nearest to dawn were the ones
when it was the hardest to stay awake.
Due to a shortage of watches there was usually only one watch
to each hole. We passed this watch when we changed the guard.
Several times, during the dangerous pre-dawn my eyelids
would get heavy. I would pull the sleeping bag up, light a cigarette under its
cover. I would cup it in my hand to hide the glow, as I fought to stay
awake. When I still caught cause myself dozing, I would run the watch up a
little. Not much, maybe five or ten minutes. But obviously, Lloyd, the guy
I shared the foxhole with, was doing the same thing. When the sun didn't come up
until 8:00 AM (according to our watch) we would have some heated arguments
about this. Once it lead to a fist fight.
Despite our arguments and disagreements, we knew that we would
watch each other's back when push came to shove. Thus it is with members of this
list. The members who are veterans, that is.
We have members who are liberals, and members who are
conservatives. We have members who liked the Supreme Commander of the Far East
Command, and those who didn't like him. But at one time I would
time I would have trusted most of these members of this list my life, just as, I
hope, they would have trusted me with theirs. I can disagree with such men
without being disagreeable.
I have set up a site where veterans can speak their minds. I
think we earned that right long ago. So you can unsubscribe me (hopefully
tomorrow), and others are invited to make any comments they care to about the
Korean War - which has never formerly ended - at my site.
Are dogfaces allowed to say "Semper fi"?
Bob Dove
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