More Life in the Zoo

Life in the flora and fauna of Vietnam can be fatal to even the most experienced troops. I am personally glad that the creatures graduated, in presenting themselves over time, to wax my nerves. Currahee Paul Clement asked, “What about the bamboo vipers?” My first thought was, ‘how did he know that I ran into a viper?’ Of course, Paul is no ordinary paratrooper.

My incident with The Snake was anecdotal and rather ho-hum.  The Bamboo Viper looks like a garden variety grass snake. A trooper said, “Look Doc, a viper.” I said, “He doesn’t look like much…for such a venomous wallop.” He just meandered off the trail, to somewhere we weren’t going. That is the thing about true danger…it doesn’t appear to look like much.

My last confrontation came on another ordinary day. We broke into a single file column to cross a mountain stream. As I entered the water, my anxiety level shot sky high. The stream was at least 20 feet across. Although the water was shallow, it was extremely swift. The slick rocky bottom afforded no means of security. There was no way to traverse this deathly open area quickly. If fired upon, there were never more than two troops in the water. (This was like playing a negative lottery ticket!)

Shuffling was the only sure means of traversing. When my turn came, my boots slid carefully across that wet rock. I had to depend on the guys ahead to provide cover. We were making an ‘X’ with the stream; those advanced formed a natural defense line, to those of us who followed…but we were dangerously exposed to the area downstream. I was a happy medic to breach the other bank. Life was good!

For a moment, I thought I had landed in the Garden of Eden. There were millions of dollars worth of greenery, ready for transport to American green thumbs. It was beautiful. The underbrush was minimal; you could see for at least a hundred feet. But then something began to move out of nowhere…fast. We had pinned a creature between us and the stream bank. In milliseconds the movement came directly towards me.

It was a tiger! He had tiger eyes…that was my recognition point. His eyes flamed wild. This was the real deal. He opened his mouth and all I could see was teeth. This was the only time I completely froze in Vietnam. I was paralyzed with fear. He instinctively knew that I  presented no threat. The tiger veered slightly to my left…at the last second. He was close enough that I could hear him breathe, but I never heard a paw touch the ground. It was all over in less than three seconds…which included his disappearance behind me. Not a single shot was fired!

The paratrooper, 20 feet directly ahead of me joked, “Did you see that! The guys are never going to believe us.” I said, “If it wasn’t for my pounding heart, I wouldn’t believe it either!” That tiger had shot between us. But I didn’t see anything…except those teeth.

Lt. John Harrison (johneharrison.wordpress.com) provides another great tiger story. It is entitled The Tiger That Tried To Join The Platoon Formation.They at least fired at their critter. In hindsight, I stared too long at the eyes and teeth. As paratroopers, we know we can’t stare at the ground the last hundred feet…it jumps into your face.  The critter was lightening fast and held the element of surprise. I can tell you that I won’t hunt anything, that I can’t hear until it breathes in my face! If you can walk away, it is a lesson learned.

Currahees…a man isn’t an optimist unless he can look a tiger in the eyes, count his teeth, feel his breath…and still believe in life!