The Real Deal
By Thurman P. Woodfork - August 30, 2011 |
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In ‘Nam, one would think that Death came without affectation
or pretense of any kind. However, he sometimes donned a
smiling child's face before he wrapped his victims in his
lethal embrace.
Other times, he'd hide with poisoned
fangs, coiled in a narrow underground tunnel, or bury
himself in the ground behind a mossy log. He would burrow
down into rice paddy dikes, waiting to explode the life from
any unlucky grunt who stepped on him.
He was fond of
lying in wait for the unwary soul beneath a booby-trapped
wounded or lifeless body. Death hiding within death. Then
again, he might greet you face to face, with a knife and a
snarl.
Death rarely came peacefully, and more often
than not, he stank – of rancid clothes and gamy bodies, not
to mention the spilled contents of those bodies. And what
are soldier-boys made of? Hearts and minds and bones and
blood and guts... as well as buddies' love
Most of the
time though, death came matter-of-factly: with a bullet or a
bomb. That's not to say that his arrival was anywhere near
unemotional or cut and dried. Just how unemotional can a
young man be when he's still in his teens, or barely out of
them? Especially when he regularly watches his friends die
in the midst of violence.
There was always emotional
turmoil, accompanied by pain, terror, noxious odors, nasty
sights, and some real, heartfelt, hot, bitter tears. Often,
it was dulled by weariness; however, it was there, just
beneath the fatigue.
But ultimately, there is only
one ending – when you're dead, you're dead; not a lot of
ambiguity or artificiality about that. |
 By Thurman P. Woodfork
Copyright 2005
About
Author...
Thurman P. Woodfork (Woody) spent his
Air Force career as a radar repairman in places as disparate as
Biloxi, Mississippi; Cut Bank, Montana; Tin City, Alaska; Rosas,
Spain and Tay Ninh, Vietnam. In Vietnam, he was assigned to
Detachment 7 of the 619th Tactical Control Squadron, a Forward Air
Command Post located on Trai Trang Sup. Trang Sup was an Army
Special Forces camp situated about fifty miles northwest of Saigon
in Tay Ninh province, close to the Cambodian border.
After Vietnam, Woody remained in the Air Force for nine more years.
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