The Crescent: A Viet Nam War Novel by David Allin

Author:David Allin
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2016-04-03T23:00:00+00:00

Samples saw Lieutenant Carr talking to the reporter and slowly shook his head. The reporter was a geek, a civilian, no less, and shouldn’t be out here in the boonies. Lord only knew what Carr was telling him. Samples took another spoonful of beanie-weenie and guided it to his mouth.

“Why’s that guy talking to the Eltee?” Reedy asked with a slightly peeved tone. Samples was sitting with Rich Reedy, Del Washington, Doc Allman, and Miles on the opposite side of a bomb crater from Carr and the reporter. The three sergeants were sitting on a log, while Allman and Miles squatted gook-style on the loose dirt thrown up by the bombs. Miles had taken off the radio, but was still connected to it by the coiled mike cord, with the handset clipped to his collar.

“Yeah,” agreed Allman. “He ought to talk to us enlisted, get the real story. Besides, the lieutenant’s only been here a couple weeks. What the fuck does he know, anyway.”

“More than you,” Samples suggested jokingly. “He’s been to college, so now he knows everything.” Allman rolled his eyes.

“I went to college,” Miles pointed out.

“And see what good it did you,” Samples said. “It got you here in the boonies carrying a fuckin’ prick-25.”

Miles frowned. “Yeah, I shoulda stayed in ROTC. I was sure the draft would end before I graduated.”

“You coulda gone to OCS,” Washington said. “You got a degree and all.”

“Yeah,” Miles said, “but then I would have had a four-year commitment, and still be just a butter-bar in Nam getting my butt shot off. No, thanks. Two hundred and ninety days. Short!”

“You ain’t short,” Allman told him. “I’m short. I’m so short I have to have a ladder to climb down off a dime.”

“Don’t get cocky, Doc,” Samples said. “You still got a month to go. Don’t go gettin’ short-timer’s attitude on me.”

“I’m shorter than the rest of you assholes,” Allman said petulantly.

“And we’re all shorter than the lieutenant,” Samples pointed out. “It’s all relative.”

“True that,” Washington seconded.

There was a pause in the conversation as the men finished up their lunch. Then Miles spoke up again.

“Did you hear about the lieutenant and the major, Sarge?” he asked Samples.

“About the tools? Yeah, I heard.”

“I couldn’t believe it,” Miles said, obviously anxious to tell the story again. “I was just inside the track talking to Stiles, and we heard the whole thing. Man, Major Moore was really POed.” Miles was very religious, and avoided using profanity. Samples admired his dedication, especially when everyone else used foul language constantly.

“They were just fuckin’ tools,” Reedy commented.

“Yeah, but they were the colonel’s tools,” Miles explained. “I’ll bet the colonel had ragged on the major about them, and the stuff just rolled downhill. Anyway, Lieutenant Carr told him off, but very politely. He knew that Chacon had swiped the tools, but didn’t tell the major that. Even implied it was the major’s fault for not marking the tools in the first place.”

“Not bad, for an officer,” Allman noted.

They all turned and looked across the crater at Carr, who was still talking to the reporter.

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