It was a sweltering January afternoon on the island of Okinawa when the order came, “We’re moving out!” The Lt. didn’t tell us where but we knew, we knew.  It was what we had trained for, what we had waited for but secretly hoped would never come, Vietnam!  There was an outward sense of excitement among the men, but an inward sense of fear they couldn’t hide, you could see it in their eyes.

Within a few hours we were aboard a ship heading out to sea.  The morale was high but so was the sense of fear.  I was a squad leader for 3.5 Rockets better known as Super Bazookas.  As I looked at my men I wondered, how many would I bring back and who would break under the strain.  I could only hope the training we had received would pay off.

As the ship maneuvered through the water for several days it was evident that we were not in a hurry to arrive at our destination.  The sun was on both sides of the ship several times during the day indicating we were zig-zaging.  Why?  Why the zig-zaging?  Why the secrecy?  Why the hasty order to move out, not allowing us to write letters home?  Something big was happening and we were right in the middle of it!

Suddenly I was awakened by another squad leader, Cpl. Williams, a tough little rebel from Alabama.  He only stood five feet five inches tall but he was a Marine you didn’t want to lock horns with.  He said, “Wake up, ‘Bo’ all the brass have been called below to a special meeting, this is it, let’s go on deck.”

I jumped out of my bunk and followed him on deck and we were immediately met by Cpl. Miller.  “What’s up?”  I said.  “I don’t know,” answered Miller.  “All the brass were called below to an urgent meeting about an hour ago.”  We were about to find out what we were in the middle of.

The three of us stayed on deck and waited to see what was going to happen, we were all rocket squad leaders so we started to reminisce about the past.  Suddenly another Marine appeared out of the dark and said he was listening to the radio when Hanoi Hanna came on and said who we were, where we were going to land and even named some of our units and Battalion Commanders.  Then she played a song called, “Under The Double Eagle.”  We just stared at each other for a moment in cold, dead silence.

Miller spoke first, “It can’t be, how could she know all that, she’s lying, she’s just fishing!”

“Maybe so, maybe so,” said Williams, “But if, if, she does know and all this is true, we’re going to have a rough time.”

“She knows too many details to be guessing,” I said.  “Some crumb sold us out for a few bucks.”  There was a long delay as we stared at each other and wondered.  Could it be true?  Did they know we were coming.

Williams stared off into the darkness and with a sadistic tone said, “Y’all know we’re not coming back, none of us. I’m going to be the first one of the three of us to git it.”  He then turned and stared at Miller for a moment and said, “And you Miller, will be the second!”

Miller paused, then answered, “I have a feeling you’re right.”  At that moment they both turned and looked right through me and in unison said, “And you ‘Bo’ will be the third!”   (A true story)                                                                               “Between The Lines”