Bejesus Scared

Now I have had the bejesus scared out of me before.

And I mean to tell you one instance that made me a believer in you.

By my faith I tell no lies. This is the God’s honest truth, so help me Jesus. It happened over thirty years ago.

I was a grunt in Viet Nam. Out in the bush in the rocket belt around Danang we patrolled and ambushed most of the time. To be able to ride in public like this was a rare occurrence. Just in from the bush and headed to China Beach, I hitched a ride with an ARVN soldier. He took me on the back of his 50cc motorbike and headed us away from Marble Mountain. I weighed 176 pounds and wore a flak jacket, helmet and boots. Toting an M-16 with 300 rounds of ammo in my flak jacket pouch. No grenades, well, I don’t know, I just know I wasn’t carrying a couple of LAAW’s as well as supplies. A day trip to China Beach to be by myself.

Now this wasn’t a smart thing to do. Going to China Beach was dangerous for other reasons and groups mostly went. For some reason I furloughed out of Battalion on a six-by truck that took me as far as Nui Kim Sun. The village was nestled in the Marble Mountains and was home to Bop and Moon and the other children I hung out with on tower watch. Now I was going like hell on the back of a motorbike piloted by a skinny Vietnamese who was hell bent for leather. He started to pass a large earthmover that was lumbering down the finely crowned road at thirty-five miles an hour. He stayed on the right running the curb part of the road which was changing and showing signs of ending. Trouble was we were just abreast of the front right tire, which was taller than us and unfendered. I saw the ARVN meant to pull right in front of the tire of that scraper just as the road narrowed. I’m glad I froze and let the man have his moment. He maintained his concentration trying to wring a few more feet before he ducked into the tire stream when the driver noticed us out of his peripheral vision. A Marine driver looked me square in the face, kept his concentration to steer straight, let off the gas, and drifted back, letting us stay on the road in front of him.

I’ve ridden motorcycles before and after that incident and I still credit myself for aiding that ARVN to keep us up in the face of danger. I hung on and avoided shifting weight, resisting the urge to look back. I rode head down hanging on for dear life. He dropped me off in front of the China Beach In-Country R&R facility and we shook hands and smiled at each other. I cleared my weapon before entering the Hall, pocketed my round and magazine and wondered why I was more afraid of death out in the bush than I was in here. Only later falling asleep back in the bush only two hours away from watch, I shivered to remember the huge rubber wheel and its smells and dirt. I clasped my hands and said,”Thank you, Dear Lord, for another blessed day.”