Coyote John

Sergeant who?  has anybody heard of him?  How long has he been SF?  Just a few of the comments heard while we waited for the arrival of our new team sergeant, Master Sergeant Parrish.  Our previous team sergeant had been with us for over the past two years and everyone had a lot of respect for him and would follow him into hell if he asked.  We knew he was up for promtion and we all wanted to see him promoted to Sergeant Major.  What we didn’t know was that he would be reassigned into a Headquarters position, were his expertise could be better utilized.  What a waste of a born leader, the wisdom that the Army displays at times is a real puzzle.  A combat tested and proven NCO is now pushing papers instead of leading men.  We had just returned from Cambodia when we had learned of his promotion and transfer.  We would meet our new team leader later in the day.  The anxiety in the team room was was running high as we awaited our new leader.  The door opened and in walked this giant of a man, about 6′4″ and 200 pounds of muscle, he had on his dress uniform and I couldn’t understand how he stood upright.  My back would be slumped over from all the medals and decorations that hung on his uniform.  What caught everyone’s attention was the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star, not one - two!  He immediately had everyones attention.  As time went on and we had the honor to train under this man we soon began to realize how fortunate we were to have him with us.  We also came to learn that he was a POW during the Korean conflict and could have avoided Viet Nam service because of it, however he volunteered to serve, not once, not twice but three times.  Old Sarge had more welts, scares, bullet holes and broken bones than all of us combined.  He also had, well more stories to tell than I do, but when he told them they were not for entertainment but for learning and learn we did.  It was probably on our third or maybe fourth trip back into Laos when things went a little wrong.  Out on a night patrol we ran into an ambush and got pinned down for a rather long period of time.  The firefight went on through the night and in the morning Sarge told us that an extraction Huey and a couple of Cobra gunships would be in to get us out.  We’ll be back in base camp for lunch.  When the Huey was a few minutes out they radioed us to mark the LZ with smoke, which we did.  As they approached they took a great deal of small arms fire, which was quickly returned by the circling Cobra’s and the door gunners on the Huey.  Once they touched down we all made a mad dash for it, smoke was billowing all over, the Cobra’s were firing as was the door gunners and we were running and gunning, talk about madness!  Sarge would not get on-board until he accounted for everybody then he hopped in and slid across the floor as the pilot took off for home.  The Co-Pilot asked if everyone was ok and did we need to be met by a  medical team, that was when we noticed the pool of blood smattered on the floor.  Who got hit someone asked, after a short pause Sarge said he “thinks” he did.  We pulled his pack and shirt off and sure as hell — he had another hole in him.  He assured us it was nothing serious and we should just go back to base camp and “don’t call the medics.”  We told the pilot to take us to the nearest hospital, which he did.  We should have known better, after a brief wait the doc came out and told us it was nothing serious and that he would be returned to duty in about a week or so.  Myself and another team member stayed with him at the hospital and the rest of the team went back to base camp.  The following morning we called back to base camp and our commander told us to stay with him as long as we wanted to - as long as it wasn’t for more than 3 days.  The first day we just sat and talked and wrote our after action reports.  That evening as we were about to leave we asked him what we could get him for tomorrow.  He replied “How about some AJ&G.”  I looked at my buddy with my best what the hell is AJ&G look, he shrugged his shoulders and we both looked at Sarge.  He smiled and said “Apple Juice and Gin.”  On the way out I asked my buddy “how in the hell can anybody drink applejuice and gin.”  He grinned and replied “Well, you know Sarge.”  When we got back to our rooms we had a message that we were going to be picked up early tomorrow afternoon, we would not be staying the full three days.  We went out and found a bottle of BeefEaters Gin rather easily but had a hellva time finding applejuice, but find it we did.  The next morning founds us at Sarge’s bedside with the “supplies” he had requested.  The nurse had already been there and left a clear cup for his morning urine sample and said she would be back shortly to pick it up.  Sarge picked it up and filled it about two thirds of the way full with gin and topped it off with a little applejuice, took a good sip of it and placed it back on the bedstand.  When she came back to collect it she made the comment “Looks kinda of weak this morning Sarge.”  He took it out of her hand as to study it a bit then told her “Yeah it does look weak, let’s run it through one more time.” and with that he chugged it all down.  I thought she was going to faint as she ran out of the ward yelling “Your all crazy, all of you guys are crazy.”  The doctor came out a short time later as did the hospital commander and we all got read the riot act.  Ole Sarge was on the Huey back to base camp with us that afternoon