Drinking Out of a VC Sewer

It’s amazing how the enemy could avoid contact in seemingly open areas. We were on search and destroy operation in the flatlands. With no enemy contact, we settled near a large stream.

I remember this as the hot dry season. However, this stream provided an abundant water supply. Some men waded into the water to beat the incessant heat.

We received food rations, but the water was apparently waived off due to our natural supply. Everyone dutifully made use of their water purification tablets; these proved effective in far worse water  sources.

Our unit operated in this sector at full company strength. This gave me a rare opportunity to catch up on small talk with the other medics. My senior aid man informed me that a soldier was experiencing abdominal problems; a water sample had been sent to the rear for analysis.

The next day it was confirmed that our water source was heavily contaminated with human feces. We were pulled back to LZ Betty, our main base camp.

We were placed on a medical stand down for five days. Our full company was treated preemptively for dysentery.

It may sound gross, but we were not shot at for five days. That means there were no wounds…no deaths for five straight days in a row. We had an unexpected reprieve from the war.

Currahees…you know our ‘friends’ were camped out upstream from us. With five days of medication, we returned to the field to render our enemy a taste of their own medicine!