Grandpa’s War – Part 27 – MASH

It was the middle of the night.

Greg Bradley and I were sharing a tent and he shook me awake with one question, “Are you OK?”

“Yeah,” I said.

Then I realized I wasn’t OK. It had taken everything I had to gasp out the answer. I found I was having trouble breathing. I was soaking wet and running a fever. I tried to sit up. That didn’t work too well. I felt weak, almost wrung out like a dish rag.

I’m pretty sure if Greg hadn’t woke me up when he did, I never would have.

Now that I knew I was sick, I found that while lying down I couldn’t breath. I propped myself up against my ruck and dozed best I could.

Come morning, I wasn’t any better. Indeed, I was worse.

It would seem I was the hot topic over the coffee pot that morning. SSG Hahr, my squad leader came over to check on me. I must have looked like death warmed under because he told me to go to the medics.

I set out to walk across camp to the Medic tent. I stood at our tents, looked across the compound and said to myself, “I can’t do this.” They were maybe a hundred meters away. Some of the marathons I’d ran didn’t seem that far compared to walking over to them.

I took a step. Then another. I don’t really recall walking over to them. I must have looked sick because I recall one of the female medics gave up her chair for me. And I was sick enough I didn’t argue.

They checked me out. I had a fever of 103. My lungs were congested. I was too sick to care when they told me to come back in a half hour.

“Leave your weapons with your platoon,” she told me.

I should have expected trouble when they said that. I would later find out that they were thinking I’d be on the first jet back to Germany.

Truth be told, I was too sick to care. I felt confused, almost separated from everything.

Blackhawks and Hueys were always coming and going at Battle Central. Either I didn’t notice the MASH Blackhawk that arrived or I was sicker than I thought.

I came back to the Medics half an hour later. They took me and a few others out to the waiting Blackhawk. We were helicoptered out to a MASH in Saudi Arabia.

I don’t remember much about the flight. I love flying and that would be the only time I ever flew in a Blackhawk.

I remember flying over the desert, then falling asleep and waking to be landing at the MASH.

A medic took me into this large building and showed me a cot.

“Lay down and rest,” he said.

I took off my LBE (Load Bearing Equipment) and helmet and lay down. I was in a gym sized building full of beds. There must have been at least a couple of hundred. Most of them were empty.

I thanked God for that.

The one’s that were occupied were a long ways away from me. Looking back, they were isolating me a little from everyone else.

I don’t know how long I lay there. I know I fell asleep. When I woke up I was shivering and soaked with sweat. Someone had put a blanket over me. Then I saw they’d started an IV on me. I couldn’t recall when the last time was I had a drink. Surely it was the day before.

A doctor came over and examined me. Blood was drawn and whisked away.

I went back to sleep.

I was woke up again by a nurse with an inhaler. After teaching me how to use it, the nurse told me an interesting story. I don’t know why she told me it. I seem to recall asking something about how duty had been for them. But then I was so sick, God knows what I said.

She told me that they had a Saudi doctor assigned to them.

This doctor liked grabbing himself a handful of boob, butt, or whatever when the mood struck him. And the mood struck him often.

The girls didn’t like it one bit and objected. He blew them off.

So, the nurses and female medics went to their command who spoke to his command.

It didn’t do any good. If anything, his unwanted attentions got worse.

In frustration, they complained again.

That’s when their CO and 1Sgt hatched a bright idea.

“Ladies,” their CO said. “The US Army has spent taxpayer money to teach you how to take care of yourselves. I think the taxpayers are due on their return.”

Their concern was getting in trouble.

“Don’t worry. He’ll never say anything about getting the hell beat out of him by a bunch of girls.”

The next time he grabbed, they beat the stuffing out of him.

Until Doomsday comes, the official story is he fell off a ladder while replacing a light bulb.

The truth is that American women stood up for themselves and cleaned his clock.

Too bad not all sexual harassment cases can be handled so easily.

Sometime after lunch which I do recall eating (Beef stew with biscuits), I was back on a helicopter. I slept during the flight back to my unit.

I was sick for several days. I recall laying outside our tent in the shade. I didn’t care if I lived or died. Everyone checked on me often and made sure I had what I needed. The medics came over at least three times a day.

About day five, I began caring one way or the other if I would live or not. I guess I was on the mend.

But it wasn’t until we were back in Germany that I began feeling better.

To this day, I haven’t a clue what was wrong with me.

All photographs Copyright – Richard L. Muniz