Flaming Torches
Heroes Remember
Flaming Torches
Water used to be, I used to get water pumped from a reservoir,
up in the mountain. I don’t know where the water come from.
I just know there was a water hose and we used to fill up our,
what we called a water buffalo. Rations, we never had fresh
rations We ate hard military rations. So did these refugees,
ate hard rations. American, what they call American “LRPs”, long
range patrol rations, they were dropped in on the leeps.
What was so funny, when the Americans used to drop the rations
at night, you could hear the aircraft but you couldn’t see
them. And don’t get me wrong when I say this, “It was beautiful!
To see the, again there was no power, no running lights,
everything in this village was dark at night. It was black,
pitch black and all of a sudden you would see this whole
side of this mountain light up with flaming torches.
The refugees would go up the mountain the side of the road to
go up to the drop zone and it was pretty. It looked like a down
hill ski, a torch at night. It looked beautiful, thousands of
torches going out and widdling their way up to the mountain
to go to the drop zone. And then you would hear the odd time off
in the distance a shot being fired and say,
“Oh well, somebody else is being shot by them, you know.”
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