tabpub
Posts: 1019
Joined: 8/10/2003 From: The Greater Chicagoland Area Status: offline
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*********Aboard an LCI somewhere East of Suva************ Scene - on the deck of an LCI pitching thru the rollers of the South Pacific, the sun is just rising over the bows. Two privates with Raider patches huddle in the lee of the superstructure; one is commiserating his partner who is puking in his helmet rather violently. Puking Private - Didn't this battalion and the 2nd Raiders hit this same island a couple of weeks ago? And why are we pitching so much?! <ralph> Raider Veteran - Yep. You missed it, being that you were just a replacement point on a Liberty ship back then. Fun time it was, but there were too many little folk there and the 2nd got a bit chopped up and we had to leave. Puking Private - <looks up greenly at the vet> But what's to say it works this time? Raider Veteran - <points to 3 heavily laden LST's burrowing their prows thru the waves> Them....look close and you can see the tops of the turrets on the upper deck; an Army tank battalion is along for the ride this time. All we have to do is cover them from infantry close assaults with our fire and they will take care of the MG bunkers that we found there. Puking Private - <rushes to the rail to expel a noxious stream of bilious stomach contents, turns and sits on the deck, back to railing> But don't the Japs have planes in the area? Raider Veteran - That's covered this time also. Look around.... <the sun is higher in the overcast now and thru the mist around one can see the boxy shapes of carriers off near the horizon, with smaller ships surrounding them> We have plenty of cover this time, not just 3 little carriers like the last operation.... Puking Private - <color returns to his face a bit> Wow. Thought they were up in the New Hebrides. How do we rate this? Raider Veteran - SB has it that it's a flyby operation; they can give us two days of cover, then they are off for something else. Something about recovering the colors of a Marine unit; I'm not sure what that is about, the jarhead telling me that was drunk and looking like he was tearing up and about to cry before he passed out in Leo's Tavern in Suva. He was a guard at SouPac HQ, but his patch read 2nd Marine....oh, look there go the Navy bombers heading East. Must be getting close....let's go get some chow, they got powdered eggs in the mess. <departs down a hatch> Puking Private - <whispers> Oh, Christ......powdered eggs....
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Sing to the tune of "Man on the Flying Trapeze" ..Oh! We fly o'er the treetops with inches to spare, There's smoke in the cockpit and gray in my hair. The tracers look fine as a strafin' we go. But, brother, we're TOO God damn low...
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