Another Place, Another Time

Weather in central Oklahoma is always unpredictable. Lately, it is downright crazy, almost a hundred degrees in early March, and cold, damp and rainy by the end of April. Tonight, as I prepared to feed my dogs, I fished around in my closet for a sweater. It is not that the weather is that inclement. It is just damp and chilly. The weather tonight and the sweater that I chose reminded me of a similar sweater that I owned during another place and time.

When I was in the boonies of Vietnam, I would go at least fifteen days with the same clothes. Socks, tee shirts and fatigue pants usually became pretty rank during that time. Underwear? We wore none. Whenever we returned to a forward firebase there was usually a bin where we could get clean clothes. The bin had tee shirts, socks, fatigue pants and shirts, all used. It also had a mixture of such things as boonie hats, neckerchiefs, and every now and then a monsoon sweater.

Digging through a clothes bin, I found two things of interest that I immediately confiscated - a neckerchief and a monsoon jacket. The black neckerchief had an embroidered skull with wings that said “Death from Above.” We were supposed to leave them on enemy bodies to show how bad we were. I stuffed mine in a pocket and kept it.

The monsoon sweater was a long-sleeved, drab green, light wool garment and I was in heaven from the time that I acquired my own. Temperatures were never cold in the tropics but there was always quite a divergence between the extreme heat of the day and the nighttime lows (seventies) experienced during rainy season.

When we finished humping for the day, I would tie my hammock between two strong bamboo shoots, stringing my poncho liner over the top. Then I would pull the monsoon sweater over my head, and heat a cup of coffee and a can of C-rations. Usually, by the time that I finished eating and crawled into the hammock, it would begin to rain. It is surprising how much a warm sweater can comfort you when you have nothing else in the world between you and the unknown.

I still have my “Death from Above,” neckerchief but my monsoon sweater is long gone. I recently did an Internet search, trying to find one online to purchase. I found none and apparently, they never existed. Well, they did exist, along with lots of other things polite society would rather forget, and probably already have.

Gondwana