There I stood, thinking "I've got a pocket full of miracles" as I always do when I'm in my Sinatra zoot suit. I held a chauffeurs sign stating her last name, blending in with the stone man rushing with his umbrella. She approached and said, "Is that me?" and asked, "Are you Ms. Smith*?". She nodded and I offered her my hand and we were off.

She was all 'dolled up' and fancy lookin'. Smelled like the inside of my momma's purse. Smile on her face made me very happy. Kissed my cheek, made me blush. She was exhausted, though, so we didn't stay together too long, but we still managed to see the Tom McCall's Waterfront Park, the Ira Keller Fountain and Pioneer Place. My favorite part of the dialogue...

David: Latasha Anne Smith*, would you like to be my girlfriend? Latasha: (smiling) Yes.

*Last and middle name changed to protect the victim.

I also encountered my friend Andy after Latasha went home. We're gonna try to hang out next week, which would be neat, but I have a feeling I'm working like 48 hours next week...

(Source: Oregonian, 8-3-04)

Cpl. Riley King, who survived Hamburger Hill in Vietnam, is determined to stay in Iraq

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

BAGHDAD -- At 59, Cpl. Riley King of Corvallis is the oldest of the more than 700 soldiers serving in Iraq for the Oregon Army National Guard's 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry. Wounded in one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War -- the assault May 10-20, 1969, on Ap Bia Mountain, better known as Hamburger Hill -- King joined the Oregon National Guard in 1983 and now oversees the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Center at Patrol Base Volunteer in Baghdad. In December, King will reach the Army's mandatory retirement age of 60. But he doesn't want to go home, and says he intends to submit a request to Gov. Ted Kulongoski for an exemption. His comments below have been edited and reordered for clarity. They begin in 1968, with his enlistment in the Army -- the first time.

"I was actually doing all right in school, but it was the times. I just wanted to find out what it was all about. I dropped out of school and went to the Selective Service office and told them I had dropped out. A month later, I got my letter.


"Since I'd been to college, I thought I'd be a clerk. I remember after Basic Training in Fort Lewis, my drill sergeant said, 'You're in 11 Bravo,' which is light infantry.

"Vietnam was such a turbulent time. When they'd done their tour of duty, they came home and tried to forget."

On his return from the war, King says, "I went back to school and got degrees in mathematics and physics at Oregon State.

"I began to think more about Vietnam (recently). I had tried to forget, but people were becoming more interested in that era. The daughter of a friend of mine had been to the Vietnam Memorial -- the Wall. And across from the Wall is the statue of the nurses. They're standing in jungle fatigues, and there's a soldier or a Marine that's wounded, and they're dressing his wounds. And she took a photo from the front and from behind. I thought it was very dramatic, and I asked if I could have them. I had those photographs matted into frames, and I had a Bible verse, Isaiah 2:4, that gives God the final say.

"God shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

"In Vietnam, there were only increments of time. The morning cool. The afternoon heat. Then the night. After a while, it became this timeless place. You sleep on the jungle floor, and, after a while, the jungle just swallows you up. It required tremendous physical exertion. It was a very defensive environment. You'd be scratched, and bleeding. You may wake up with leeches. After a while, you're in this timeless environment.

"Here, people are always trying to make schedules. People are controlled by the clock. Here we're on a base, in an urban environment. You have to make deadlines. You have to be in a certain place at a certain time.

"I spent most of my tour alone (in Vietnam). It was very thick jungle. You can't see the man ahead of you, and you're carrying your rucksack. You have a love/hate relationship with it because you're carrying everything to sustain you. You have four canteens. Here (in Iraq), we have bottled water. Here you deal with weight, too. There you had a rucksack, here you have" 40 pounds of body armor.

"I was around poor blacks and poor Southern whites (in Vietnam), and I was from Oregon. I was white, middle-class, just hanging on. These guys saved my life -- and I reciprocated.

"For a long time, society had a negative portrayal of the soldier over in Vietnam. It was kind of painful.

"I was born December 4, 1944. I would like to make an appeal to Governor Ted Kulongoski and ask him to intercede for me and extend my tour of duty and let me serve my full time with the unit, past the age of 60. As commander in chief of the Oregon National Guard, I believe he can do that.

"What I'd like to do is finish my tour of duty with the battalion and go home with the battalion. I had done a full tour in Vietnam. Now I'm an older man. Serving here, for me, is a great honor, to serve America and the Iraqi people in these turbulent times. So I'd like to give it everything I've got."

Being one of the oldest soldiers in the U.S. Army is "kind of an honor. I'm thankful for having the energy to still keep up."

"I've broken some bones jumping out of planes. There's lots of pain involved. I guess I mask it pretty well.

"In Vietnam, when I became a Christian, it was after a very violent, bloody afternoon. That night, I was left behind with the dead. I let go and accepted the Lord in my life.

"Actually I was laying there and started fumbling around. I pulled out a C ration packet, opened it up and started fumbling around for some gum. What I pulled out was a book of matches and pack of salt.

"There was a verse in the Bible when Jesus told the believers to be salt and light. I remembered the chaplain had said that verse. That was Hamburger Hill.

"It's in the north part of the Ashau Valley. It borders Laos, and it's west of Hue. It's a deep valley. It's below the DMZ, but was controlled by the North Vietnamese army. It was part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail bunker complex.

"I was with the 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry of the 101st Airborne. It was about a 600-man battalion. I was with Bravo Company.

"One reason it's remembered is because of its intensity. One entrenched army, one in straight-up assault, and it was for 25 hours. We had taken a bunker, then we would withdraw. You couldn't hold the ground you had taken. You had to make sure they couldn't flank you, or overrun you. We literally were taking the ground we had taken the day before.

"That day there were three killed. Over a period of two weeks, there were a lot killed and a lot wounded.

"In the end, we'd taken it and then withdrawn. A few weeks later, the Vietnamese had reoccupied it. It created a firestorm in Congress. 'What was the point?'

"From the soldiers' point of view, we were going to take that hill, even if we all were killed. There's an esprit de corps, especially about the grunts, the infantry, that at some point, it's all or nothing. To the death.

"At a certain point, we were going to take that hill or die trying to take it. It's the way men are. It's all or nothing. That's been true of all assaults. The Charge of the Light Brigade. Iwo Jima.

"The sacrifice on Hamburger Hill and the courage was beyond description, on both sides.

"Hamburger Hill is not that big. It was the sheer concentration of all-out combat around the clock, face-to-face, up close."

In Iraq, "you don't know who could be your enemy. There's always the matter of (roadside bombs), which kill men at a distance. So you're not really facing directly an enemy. It's still just as lethal.

"The Iraqi insurgents are very determined. Suicide bombing -- that's quite a commitment. I (just) don't agree with their objectives.

"I didn't know what to expect when I came here, but I've found these people to be flexible and resourceful. They want to rebuild the country and their lives."

Drawing a parallel with the way U.S. troops left Vietnam, Riley says, "We can leave (Iraq). We can have our possessions and have our freedoms. We have oceans to protect us and neighbors that don't threaten us. We can do that. At what point are we going to stop abandoning people? I'll go home and I'll have my security and wonder, 'What's going to happen to these people?' Will they have civil wars? Will they have chaos? Will they fall under foreign domination?

"I think we should stick it out here and see it through."

I'd like to say I wrote this. But I actually just sung it after never hearing it before, and then wrote it down.

It is titled, "Resounding Silence" (which I didn't happen to sing)

Why won't you call? Why won't you ring? Why won't you fall, and let me be your everything? Why be so strong? What makes you tick? Why aren't you wrong? Why'd we have to click? I was satisfied, I was feeling fine. Happy not knowing what I was missing. Then you came around, had to show me up, Had to be yourself and leave me reminiscing. Why'd I have to smile? Why am I still... smiling? Couldn't pass the trial, Couldn't stop myself from... dialing.

Theres a guitar part that goes with it, but it just uses A and G. It is my first song with musical accompanyment.

She's just got a fever of 102. I'm not sure why thats a relief, but I guess I care more about the content of someone's character than their physical health.

She told me she really hopes she feels better so that we can hang out tomorrow, but I think I'll see her no matter what tomorrow. If she is still ill, I think I'll get her a stuffed animal and some soup or something, but really just because I wanna swing by her house and see her, even if it is just for a short moment.

She called in sick and they made her cry, telling her she had to come into work if they couldn't get someone to replace her. That is just plain wrong, but she wouldn't let me call them about it. I would even have offered to cover her shift. She told me that I couldn't fix this for her, that she has to do it herself, and I guess I have to respect that.

I'm grateful to have this time to speak with her, nonetheless. I hope she is well in the morning.

If you don't like poetry, don't read this post.

If you do enjoy it and have the patience to read a few poems and try to tell me which if any are worthy to enter this poetry scholarship I'm interested in, I'd appreciate it supremely.

#1 A Difficult Read
4-28-04 2:06am

The words spoke in such an altruism, yet they seemed there for their own benefit. How could I trust the narrator, or the author or even my own comprehension, assembled by four and a half billion years of selection. "Too fine a day to spend it outdoors." My reading skills, that have been nurtured for years, could define each word, list synonyms, determine contextual clues and even interprit the iambics. The tests say I can read at a college level, but when it came to her face, I was illiterate.

#2 Endangering Specie
By David Richardson

My very existence tears at the fabric, Of my clothes, and of the time-space continuum. I am a virus, sucking the very essence, From my parents' wallet, and from the river of life. Capable of raising the dead, curing any ailment known to man or God, And yet I am the worst of diseases. I take good people and rip them apart. I do it in the name of God. All I ever wanted to do was help them, Love them, make them happy. I tried to hand them the world on a silver platter, Love them above all except our Maker. I lost sight of glorification of Him or her. I soared to the highest heights, While she and He sunk into the lowest valley. She saw me and thought, "He is a man that follows God." And realized that I am the worst of them all. Now she hates us both.

#3 First-Fruits
3-7-04 1:23am

Empty hearts offer no room for love. Overflowing arteries provide much room for worry. Have I not a heart for beating and not just for being beaten? I forget her between the monuments, but with each breath-stealing moment, my heart repeats the rhythym she taught it. Will I love again? Undoubtably. But with such purity and simplicity? To quote a raven-haired woman, "Nevermore." The first-fruits aren't always the sweetest. Sometimes they teach you to recognize things, when they haven't ripened yet, or when they have been too long on the vine. A diet of blackberries satiates today, emaciates tomorrow.

#4 Mail-Order Friend
3/5/04 1:31 am

"Do you think you'd want to...?" A maybe, later cancelled. The package was labeled, 'Fragile'. People are, china isn't. Suspiciously sweet but with a past worth checking. "What are you doing tomor...?" She has plans. The 'get to know you' is hard when I can't even get to the second date. "Is she there?" "Who wants to know?" Just a guy, a friend, a classmate, no one important. How many times will I ask and be turned down? "If you're not doing any..." Your excuses get lazier. I dodge what I want to say and you dodge what I actually say. Simply, "Will you be my friend?" as I tuck your hand into mine.

#5 Ziggarett
4-16-04
(Note: I posted this one earlier, once again "Raucher: ja" is german for "Smoker: yes", as one would see on a profile.)

"Raucher: ja" I knew not the meaning, nor magnitude. Cinged by a silver box labeled, "Jesus Saves" The ember on my end, was not unlike the one inside her. She brings her lips to mine, consuming my poison slowly. Her chest puffs and my light multiplies, pulsating with each breathe. Her glow failed to fade, long after she dropped me, only half used and still lit, to the cold pavement beside the tracks. "Like this," she said, crushing me beneath her heel, twisting her ankle rythymically.

#6 Schwester
22.3.2004

"Was noch?" sie hat gesagt. Ich machte sie laufen. Von Ananaskatzen bis "Krass!" Es war das Wenigste, dass ich könne für dich tun. Sie gebt all sie haben, mit umbegreuzten Geduld. Ich werde nie vergessen, die Zeit ich hatte zu mein Heim weit von Heim. Sie bekämpfe mein Hunger und Heimweh, und immer macht mich bequem. Gastschwester und Christusschwester auch. Ich wünsche mir ein tausend Tage mit sie, aber zehn ist all ich haben. Mich Ärma!

So start casting your votes, and, don't bother voting for #6 because, one of the rules says that the poem must be in english.