dboyd001

..... I one not so amusing 4th of July story.
..... I was Marines on an late day eight hour patrol off the fire base in Viet Nam on 3rd July 1970. We were approaching the base just before midnight when every freakin' mortar, howitzer, pop-up flare, you name it... was being shot up from the base by the usual idiots. So there was the nine of us out in the middle of a damned dried up rice field in the free fire zone of the base with all this _____ going on, the sky lit up like the 4th of July. So we ended up hugging the ground for about an hour while everyone on the base got their 4th of July kicks.
..... By the way this was in the Que Son Valley area, a very Cong-friendly area and patrols were hit as often as not without all the illumination. At least better than the year before when I was in a hospital recovering from injuries from a land mine.

..... A better 4th of July was in 1981 when the destroyer I was on was off the coast of Lebanon. We were being shadowed by the usual assortment of Soviet Naval ships. On the 4th a Krivak class approached us very closely and we were about to go to general quarters. On the deck of that ship the crew had manned the rails and were saluting, dipping their colours as we approached each other. Even in the Cold War sometimes even enemies could acknowledge some things.

..... The 4th in 1988 was better as my wife, son and I relaxed to watch fireworks over Bay St. Louis, MS, enjoying a crawfish boil on a warm, but comfortable night. Some things cannot get better than that.

Dave