Six Sailors (poem) by Ed Matlack on AuthorsDen

Six Sailors
by Ed Matlack → (All Poetry by Ed Matlack)
Rated "G" by the Author.

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A poem of war, not a dream, a nightmare, a memory of a heretofore forgotten time...or so we do try...ed

Six Sailors… A village up ahead, Thatched roofs, walls of straw, No grenades left, little ammo, No movement, not a sound, Should we sneak in or let off a few rounds? Hey what do we know, we are not Special Forces, Not even are we army grunts, Just a group of six sailors, our patrol boat run-aground… My back killing me, that mortar round rocked the boat, Now we are on land, no training there, Hey, that brush just moved, look out, don’t fire, oh, it’s just a goat, AK fire behind us, night coming in fast, looks like rain, wish I had a coat. Decide we do to sneak thru the village, no choice… Most huts burnt out, except the biggest, approaching with caution, Fanning out around it are all six, all at once we enter, No cong, just women & kids, huddled over a door leading down, All the women looking down with their eyes, we know what we have to do, Hustling the children and mothers into the jungle, We find an arms cache, AK-47’s, rockets, grenades, so we restock, Don’t want to herein make a mistake; we don’t want to bungle, Find some plastique, after we make sure the door down is jammed, We rig the explosive, American made, for a 30 second blow… Out of the village we run, boy so fast we did go, Watched the explosion, heard the shouts from below, Grenades into the opposite end of the tunnel we found from the dust, Stayed and kept an eye on the exit as we thought we must, Took the non-combatants with us, out of the jungle, Met up with Special Forces, no fire fights, no enemy seen… They had been looking for that cache of hidden weapons, Apparently Charlie had no chance to move it below ground, We showed up, ruining their plans, making them move underground, No medals, no thanks, not even a ride in a chopper, Just doing what we were there at that particular moment in time to do, Just as all were doing there then, that’s right, yes, me and you too… © ed ~ 7/13/04

Reviewed by Tinka Boukes

Reviewed on July 14, 2004

Very vivid write Ed!!

Love Tinka

Reviewed by Susan de Vegter

This is a reminder of my newspaper days and the horrors of the Viet Nam war. I saw the pictures and had family lost there not to mention friends. I want to thank you for serving and for giving us a part of your memory. Well done!
Susan

Reviewed by Rene Swing (Reader)

You have such a way with words! It makes the reader feel that they are really there!

Reviewed by Kay P Devenish

I am glad you got back o.kay,it must have been awful being there.
Anyway...you wrote it out and did so with great style.
Best wishes always
from
kay.

Reviewed by Susan Sparks (Reader)

This is excellent.

Reviewed by Mr. Ed

A very vivid depiction of that war, and how ordinary folks, as you say, rose to do whatever was required of them, with little fanfare or thanks, from anyone, because that's what 'grunts' do, in every war.

Well Done, Ed.

Reviewed by La Belle Rouge (Reader)

So vivid and real, a story of horror and valor.