Well, last night I watched a program on giant snakes and they talked about the longest snake in the world, the reticulated python, from Southeast Asia.  Boy, I related to that.  You see, my scariest moment in Vietnam concerned the python or maybe pythons. 

Now, if there are any hardcore killers, macho men, Rambos, etc. reading this, read on before you say “this guy doesn’t know what scared is”.  I, like most other Cav combat soldiers was mortared, rocketed, sniped at and was involved in ambushes and yes they were all scary.  Hell, walking point, LPs, eagle flights, night positions in his territory, it was all scary, but in order to survive we knew we had to deal with it.  I did know that I did not want any non-scared combat soldiers anywhere near me or any of my people.   For me, I just did not know how to deal with my scariest moment.  I could not fight back, hit the ground, return fire or call for help and this brings me to my scariest moment in Vietnam.

My moment began with me on the point of the Company.  We were in thick, thick terrain and I came to a clearing.  The clearing was covered with elephant grass.  The company commander called a break and we took our break in the thick terrain.  When the break was over I moved out, by myself, 20-30 yards into the elephant grass, stopped, looked for signs of any past movement in the tall grass, listened, smelled, etc.  I don’t remember feeling anything, sensing anything or being alerted to anything, but I looked down and there was snake everywhere. 

A huge snake or snakes (maybe mating) and I had never seen a snake as large as what was all around the ground I was standing on.  I never saw the head or heads, but I wasn’t looking for the head either.  I just saw snake all around me and I broke for the thick terrain.  I got to the Lieutenant and the others and I told the Lieutenant, “snake”.  I was trying to tell the Lieutenant more and I felt my legs starting to quiver and the next thing I knew I was on my backside.  The fear just took my legs from under me. 

After a little while, Butch Buchannan and I went forward with machetes and no snake or snakes were found.  Maybe I had scared the snake or snakes away, imagine that after what they did to me.  Looking back, the snake or snakes were huge and it was the only time I saw such a snake in Vietnam.  I think most of us saw snakes, but none of the other snakes I saw left such a memory.  

Being a Louisiana boy, I grew up with cottonmouths, rattle snakes, copperheads, coral snakes, etc.  There had been many times I had been close to snakes, but none had ever been so up close and personal as my only encounter with the reticulated python(s).  

Scary moments happen in combat and I know there were times that all of us were scared, but this was the only time I saw any of our people get knocked on their backside by fear, and this one time it just happened to be me.