One More Patrol

It was the Monsoon seasons 1967...rain and more rain. Will it ever end? Sure hate going out in this mess, but our rotation is here. It was going to be like any other patrol, get on station, wait until ordered the time, if no one shows, pull up anchor and return to base. There was just one thing wrong. This was not going to be like any other Patrol.

This patrol was going to change my life forever, even though I never realized it at the time.

We were ordered to a cordinance and to wait till 0500 for a scout patrol and to bring them back, if they did not show to return to base. Well, they did not show and we pulled anchor and were heading back down river when all hell broke loose.

The incident just happened, and it seemed like the next thing I knew it was over. But now, I’m without someone I really cared for, he was like a brother and yet we hardly knew each other.

We had gone through basic training together, boat school, jungle warfare training, and hand to hand combat school. He always called me “Mac” and I would call him “Shadow”. His name was actually Ty, but one picked up nicknames in Nam real fast cause in most cases we did not want to know each other that well. We were known by most of the people as “Mac” and “Shadow” the reason for this is that if one was around the other was right there also and Ty being black well he made a perfect shadow.

We were returning from a patrol when we run into an ambush on the river. We were caught in crossfire, things were happening so fast that it was hard to keep up with what was going on. I was piloting the boat, I got us out of range after some heavy fire fighting, that is when I heard Ty from the back of the boat, yelling for his mother. I turned to look at what was happening when I saw him laying on the deck. What I saw turned my stomach, I cut the engines immediately, jumping down from my station and rushed back to grab my buddy in my arms. The sound of his voice still runs through my mind at times. “Mom, help me, it hurts so bad, please make the pain go away, make the pain stop, Please.” I pulled my buddy close to my heart, comforting him, telling him I was there. “Please hold on brother I will get you back”, these were my words to Ty. All hell was breaking loose all around us once again, but it was as if time stood still.

0545 or so the sun rose ever so slowly as if to keep Ty alive a little longer. I asked the Great Spirit that put us here, asking for my life to trade for Ty’s. Finally the first rays of sunlight hit us both, I tore my shirt off and tried to clean the blood from Ty’s face. He was so young to have this happen to him. It was not fair, he had a family back home that cared for him. He had brothers and sisters and other family that loved and missed him. Me, well hell I bet there was not one person left in my life back home that could care less if I made it or not, or even realize that I was gone. Why in the hell am I not the one lying on the deck of this riverboat with half my guts spread all over? He had taken three rounds in the chest and stomach and one to the side of the head. Please Great Spirit let me trade places with my dear friend.

“Mom, Mom, Mom “. With tears filling my eyes and my heart pounding like it was coming out of my chest. I held Ty as tight as I could. I assured him how much his Mom and Dad, sisters and brothers all loved him and that how much I could not stand to be without my “shadow”. I continued to tell him how proud of him we were of the things that he had done in his life.

Then I looked deep into his eyes and wiped a tear that had run from his eye. I raised his head up and gave him a kiss and held him until he died.

I don’t know to this day when or how we got back to base, but I was holding Ty so tight and there were guys trying to get him from me but I just held on. I do not know who had finally managed it, but someone came up behind me and hit me in the head with something, knocking me out cold. It was then that they took Ty away from my clutching arms and locked me into a Quonset hut so they could do so.

After that I felt pretty well empty. I held a lot of guilt inside. I would ask myself, what would his parents think of a white 18-year-old guy loving their son so much as to stay with him and try to take away the pain that had he felt, wishing all the while that I could trade places with my best friend.

His name is no more, but his face and the tears in his eyes are still with me. In honor of my dear brother and friend, I was able to fulfill the promise we had made. I was able to name my Son Tyrone after him.

BLESS YOU TY, YOU ARE A BIG PART OF MY LIFE AND WILL ALWAYS HAVE A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART.