3 Times of Concern 1709

I remember 3 times in my life when I was close to death or thought so. Those times were when I was very young. 2 times were in the Philippines when I was trying to stay out of trouble. One was when I was in a Sari Sari store (a place where they sold groceries and beer by a makeshift bar.) I was sitting having perhaps more beer than I should have when a beer bottle came wizzing past my head. I was there with a cab driver whom I had asked to keep me away from the temptations of bar girls. When the beer bottle came past my head I stood ready to fight with the Filipino who threw it. I figured I could kick his ass, until he pulled out a U.S. made .45 caliber pistol. I still thought I could take him, remembering our training on Guam when I fired that same pistol and could not even hit the target. The cab driver saved me when he grabbed me and rushed me out of there. At just about 6 feet I do not think he would have missed me, not like on a firing range where I was 30 feet away from the target.

There was another time in the Philippines when I faced a similar situation, but it is kind of fuzzy and I do not remember it well, except for staring down the barrel of another U.S. made .45 caliber pistol. That is something a man does not forget.

Once I remember flying into DaNang after 22 or 23 hours tracking a typhoon. We were in the air long enough that we could not get back to the Philippines, so we landed in DaNang to refuel. We were there for a couple of hours and those of us not involved in the refueling operation went to the enlisted men’s club there. We got back to the flight line just as the bad guys started firing mortars toward flight line and the revetments for aircraft there. The plane commander stopped the pre-flight and loaded us aboard and pointed our big fat target skyward. I cannot remember ever being so relieved as when the big target lifted off the runway, climbed into the sky above and then cleared land.

I suppose I am lucky in that it has been many years since then when I felt my life was threatened. I think life here is for the most part pre-determined before we are born. We get away from some things that should have killed us, but that true end, wherever, whenever is inevitable. As always, I could be wrong.