Chapter 32: CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Reads: 524
Comments: 1

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Fumie kind of slumped in her chair, still wiping her eyes with her handkerchief. But with that look of anger and hatred returning. " . . . Again, I just don't quite know where to begin."

"Well, you said you and Mike were living a wonderful dream together. Why don't you start there?"

"Yes. Like I said, we were living a wonderful dream together. But it only lasted a few years until Johnson suddenly ordered combat troops sent into Vietnam, instead of just advisors. Which meant all the draft boards shifted into high gear drafting up plenty of cannon fodder for him to do it with. And Mike had lost his student deferment when we graduated."

"But you said he was still going to night school. Couldn't he still keep his deferment?"

She shook her head. "He was only going to night school part time, not the full time he needed to keep his deferment. Remember he had a full time job then just like me."

"So he got drafted?"

She nodded. "They at least gave him a week's notice before having to report for his physical, which he passed with flying colors -- unfortunately for both of us."

"I take it he didn't want to go."

"Absolutely not! He was even joining many of the antiwar demonstrations against it. I think maybe that's why they drafted him so soon. "

"Did you join the demonstrations, too?"

"I didn't think it was appropriate. I was still a Japanese citizen, not an American. Though Mike and I had begun talking about me becoming a U.S. citizen."

"Well why didn't you, if you were living such a wonderful American dream?"

"Because I didn't want to loose the citizenship of my native country. The Japanese government immediately revokes the Japanese citizenship of any Japanese who decides to become a citizen of another country. And the U.S. government only grants duel citizenship under very extreme circumstances, which I didn't qualify for. Ironically, for me it would turn out to be a blessing in disguise."

"A blessing? In what way?"

"Because it allowed me to become the president and a teacher at this junior college here in Japan with only an A.A."

"Now that you mention it, that does seem kind of strange. I mean, you required me to have a BA to teach here."

She shook her head. "I required you to have a B.A. to get you a three year teaching visa to teach here. As a Japanese citizen, I don't need a visa to do anything here in Japan."

"I envy you that. I only had a one year work visa before you hired me and had to go through all the ungodly bureaucratic rigmarole to renew it every year. But what I want to know is what happened to Mike? . . . though I'm afraid I already know the answer."

She sighed. "They sent him to Fort Polk in Louisiana for his eight weeks of Basic Training, followed by eight weeks of AIT, Advance Individual Training at a fort nearby. There they trained him to become an infantryman -- a 'grunt' in Army slang."

"My God, I've heard about them! Weren't they the ones that had to do most of the hand-to-hand fighting and the most that got killed in action?"

She nodded. "And during his training we could only talk on the phone for about five minutes once a week because they had so few phones in his barracks. And long distance calls were still quite expensive back then. He told me he was at least training with a real rifle, not a wooden one."

"Well, couldn't you have flown over to visit him?"

"They didn't allow trainees to have family visits. And I had my classes at my college to teach."

"Didn't they at least give him leave after he finished his Basic?"

She shook her head. "After he completed all his training, he was supposed to get a month's leave before reporting for active duty. But by now there were already more than one hundred thousand combat troops in Vietnam. And Johnson kept hollering for more, more, more! Send in all the troops they could, he ordered. Many, many more troops. 'Right now, God damn it!' And so they sent Mike right over without any leave. After his week to become acclimatized to Vietnam's muggy heat and Vietnam itself, he was assigned to a company and a squad with a squad sergeant he hated. Because he just kept screaming at him and his squad mates to do all sorts of unnecessary work."

"But Fumie, how do you know all this? Could he call you all the way from Vietnam?"

"No, I learned it from one of his buddies in his squad. Rusty. He was a draftee, too. And just as much against the war as Mike. He was badly wounded and sent back to 'The World' -- as Rusty called the States -- for treatment. And then he came to my house all the way from Chicago because he felt he just had to tell me what had happened after Mike was assigned."

"Well, what did happen?"

Tears started forming in her eyes again. She wiped them away. "They were sent into battle on a helicopter, a 'chopper' in Army slang. The first two landing zones or LZs the chopper put them down in were cold in that they saw no action. The squad sergeant had picked out the LZs himself, even though there were no U.S. spotters on the ground to 'pop smoke' -- flares of a pre-agreed on color to tell them if it was OK to land. They just lay down on the ground, rifles ready. But apparently there were no Viet Cong soldiers in the area. After a few hours their squad sergeant called the chopper back."

"But I'm suspecting things didn't go so well the third time, did they?"

She shook her head, now almost crying.

"Their squad sergeant -- by now way too cocky in Rusty's opinion -- again picked out what he thought was another safe LZ without any ground confirmation. But when they landed and the chopper took off, they discovered there were VCs hiding behind all the trees surrounding the LZ and they began firing away from the safety of those trees -- just as Mike's squad was spreading out, in the open. Rusty thinks it was a VC trap. Their squad sergeant immediately called the chopper back and hopped on it before anybody else could. The rest of them had to crawl their way back to the chopper under heavy VC fire. But Mike stayed behind firing as many rounds as fast as he could to draw the VC fire towards him and give them cover -- soo like Mike. Rusty saw Mike get hit in the head and probably killed instantly -- thank God in small ways for that, I suppose. Rusty turned back to get his dead body. But his squad sergeant screamed at him to forget any DBs and get on the damn chopper so they could get the hell out of there. Rusty crawled around again to get on the chopper and that's when he got hit and just lay there on the ground, badly wounded. The squad sergeant screamed at the chopper pilot to take off without him. But his buddies in the squad aimed their rifles at the sergeant and the pilot, grabbed Rusty and pulled him up into chopper. The chopper took off right away and was just barely able to limp them back to base -- it had been so badly shot up by the VC's AK-47s by then."

"My God, you mean you didn't even get his body back to bury?"

She shook her head, now definitely crying. I let her wipe her eyes in silence for a time. She finally straightened. "All I got was his posthumous Purple Heart. I felt like throwing it in the trash, knowing how much Mike hated the war. But it was all I had left of him, so I kept it. When Rusty came, I offered to give it to him. But he said he had his own, thanks, and he was just sorry that they couldn't get Mike the Medal of Honor to go with it. After all, he had probably saved all their lives by staying behind and firing cover for them."

"Well, why didn't he?"

"When Rusty, and his squad buddies requested their company lieutenant to refer him up the chain of command for the medal, he refused, 'He was married to a gook' 'No! He was married to a Japanese,' 'A gook's a gook and we're fighting them, The only good gook is a dead gook, So I'll be god damned if I'm going to recommend anyone married to a gook for the Medal of Honor!' And he stopped the process for the medal before it could really get started."

"If it's any consolation to you, Fumie, it sure sounds to me like he deserved the Medal of Honor, too."

I let her stay silent while she kept wiping her eyes with her handkerchief. Finally, "Thank you, Dave. It does help a little."

"But you were living in America then. Why did you come back to Japan?"

"Our wonderful dream home we had been so happy in was now just a lonely, empty house to me without Mike to share it with. And I couldn't bear living anymore in the country that I still blame for killing him."

"Well, what did you do?"

After she'd wiped all her tears away, she looked at her watch. "Oh my, it's six thirty already! Dave, I'm terribly sorry to have kept you this long."

I shook my head. "No need to apologize, Fumie. I really wanted to hear that story and it was well worth the time. Will you tell me why you came back to Japan and what you did afterward? I can wait until next week."

"Yes, I'll tell you then. It's not such a long story anyway."

As I was getting on my cub to drive back to my apartment, "My God little buddy, it's starting to snow this early in the season! We're going to have to be real careful on the way home if it starts to accumulate."

Beeep!

Fortunately, it didn't accumulate . . . . Not that night anyway.

Submitted: October 23, 2023

Romance romance japan gaijin travel-in-japan japan-1970s

Like
Shelfit

Chapters

T
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64

Add Your Comments:

Sign in to write a comment

Comments

B Douglas Slack

It was unfortunate, but there were NCOs in that war who only had their own safety in mind. They rode everyone hard and would lift a finger to help them if they got into trouble. One of the Marine NCOs whose platoon guarded our intelligence compound was demoted and sent to Saigon after pulling his truck away from a stopped caravan and heading back to safety. I also heard of one Army officer who got "fragged" as well.

Good chapter, Ken.

Bill

Fri, November 3rd, 2023 1:15am

Author
Reply

I'm sure there were many fine and brave NCOs. But I've heard about the bad ones as well. As for fragging, I'm sure Rusty and his buddies wanted to frag that lieutenant. But you can only throw a hand grenade at an officer in the field where nobody else can see them do it, not on the base they had already returned to.

Glad you thought the chapter was convincing as again it was damned hard for me write never having been to Nam myself. As always, thanks for the comment.

Ken

Fri, November 3rd, 2023 7:19pm