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Chapter 12
Mt. Spring At Just The Right Time
The next morning after the ‘bee attack’ and the close call with the VC patrol—the platoon continued into the mountainous region to which we had been assigned. I held up the platoon as we neared the end of the ridge line—I studied my map — examining the contour lines of the terrain immediately before us. I knew from past experience ( Recon, etc. ) that mountain streams formed often where the contour lines of the terrain came together in a ‘V’ shape—I marked one such place on my map and guided our platoon patrol down the mountain we were on towards it. The terrain was rugged, rocky and difficult—as we approached the ‘V’ feature we began to hear the sound of water rushing—like a small waterfall. We continued thru the brush until finally we came to a lush, wet basin at the bottom of a small waterfall—water was gushing out of the side of the mountain down to the basin below then down into a stream approx. 10 ft. across and deep enough to submerge your body into.. We were elated but the troops could only ‘celebrate’ silently since we were still ‘clandestine’. I set up a perimeter with 50% security while the men filled their canteens—using their ‘ halazone tablets’ ( water purification ) to kill whatever germs may be in the water. We had been hot, dry and very thirsty—now we were cooler, wet and satiated with cool mountain water. The water appeared to emanate from a spring but we couldn’t be sure—it was probably safe to drink but we couldn’t take that chance—the troops didn’t seem
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