Rising Like the Tucson by Jeff Danziger

Author:Jeff Danziger
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: DOUBLEDAY
Published: 1977-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

THE GREEN LINE

Despite Vietnamization and all the other interruptions, the war went on. The infantry wandered in the jungle looking for the North Vietnamese, found them, and tried to kill them. The Army of the Republic of South Vietnam tried to stay out of the way. The American artillery fired shells, the American air force dropped bombs, and the American Corps of Engineers continued to build roads for Japanese motorcycles. Kit did his part, sort of. His name came up on rotation rosters for several special duties. He was often assigned to investigate missing or stolen things, usually vehicles. He was assigned once a week as a malaria control officer, to stand and watch long lines of enlisted men take their Monday morning quinine pills and then run to the outhouses. He was a finance control-day officer to exchange all the military scrip.

He was a failure as an investigation officer since he believed nearly all of the reasons given for why things were missing. He wrote "taken by person or persons unknown," which was the approved army way of saying that no one cared.

He was a failure as a malaria control officer, too, because the men often palmed their pills. Kit wasn't quick enough to see whether the pill went down their throats or down their sleeves. Many were ready to risk malaria, even though it was a court-martial offense, because it might get them out of the fighting.

And he was a great failure as a finance control-day officer on the secret day when all the old design military scrip, with the astronauts and the submarine on it, was exchanged for a new design, which featured famous landmarks in American history. Such duty meant hours of counting the wrinkled, sweaty little pieces of scrip turned in and keeping meticulous records. Kit made mistakes in reissuing the new scrip. The enlisted men got mad and put on an act of profound umbrage in front of Kit's scrip-counting table. Some of the soldiers ranted and swore that the army was trying to cheat them. Kit felt, as usual, that it was probably his fault, and tried to make up the claimed difference from his own money. After he ran out, he tried borrowing from the pile of money for those who hadn't come to his table yet. This led to a substantial shortage for the men at the end of the line. After lengthy and heated discussion they accepted a partial payment he was able to borrow from the Finance Corps captain and Kit's personal IOU for the rest. The Finance Corps captain agreed to the loan only after the men offered as an alternative to beat the hell out of him and Kit and anybody else on their side of the table and wreck the building and gas the place and so on.

But his most warlike duty was his assignment as Officer of the Day on the Green Line, a twenty-four-hour stint checking on the infantry troops who manned the bunkers and towers along the perimeter.

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