Rats!!!!!!

As most of you know I was a member of the United States Marine Corps. Throughout my High School days I figured I would end up in the Korean War. Cannon fodder was what Father Cooper told us we would probably be. Shortly before I graduated from High school a cease fire was declared and peace talks began. They went on for years and still may be going on for all I know. After I got out of school they still maintained a draft. You could count on being drafted within three or four years unless you had an exemption for school or got married. I worked as a meatcutter in my home town for two years when a friend of mine said he was joining the marines. I tried to talk him out of it till I lost my drivers license for trying to ditch a state patrolman one night. I figured if I had to walk I might as well walk off my military obligation. My brother Jerry got drafted that summer and had a choice of two years in the navy or the army. He took the Navy. I joined the Marines for two years active duty and four years in the ready reserve. After Boot camp at San Diego and Infantry training at Camp Pendleton in California I was sent to Okinawa for 14 mos.About half of our outfit, including some officers were active reserves like me. We basically practiced combat training, hiking 29 miles to our training areas. Okinawa is a tropical Island. Very hot and frequent rains. One night while playing war games we camped out in a graveyard. They had domed tombs with small, low doors where they placed their deceased. When an okinawan died they were placed in a wooden box in the fetal position. When the next family member died the youngest daughter in the family would wash the bones of the previous deceased and put them in an urn, so they could use the box for the next one. The night we were camped out in that graveyard it had been raining for hours. I caught duty on phone watch for four hours huddled up in my poncho with a walky talky. It was a miserable night while listening for any communication I felt something crawling up my leg. The first thing I thought of was a snake they had over there called a Habu. It was poisenous so I just froze, hopeing it would go away. Pretty soon I felt it on my back and thenI felt fur grazing my neck. Snakes dont have fur so I gave my shoulder a lurch and this big old rat went flying off my shoulder. I told my sargent about it and one of the R.O.T.C. lieutenants. got panicky. The sargent told him not to worry because the habus would eat the rats. That really shook him up thinking there might be habus in the area. Then the sargent told him not to worry about the habus because the mongooses would kill the habus. That Lieutenant wanted me to stand over him with a flashlight while I had the duty and to instruct my relief to do the same. The rats were there because they ate the rotting corpses so could have carried all kinds of diseases. After this experiance I was glad that we werent in a real war with officers like that one. During the same war games while on patrol we were crossing a rice paddy. These rice paddies were fertilized with human feces carried to them in what they called honey buckets. We had to jump over gaps in the path and on one gap I didn't jump far enough. My feet started to slip and I ended up waist deep in the rice paddy. Someone pulled me out but my shoes were full of water. As we proceeded on patrol every step was squish squish. Some of the guys started snickering and before long we were all laughing. If this had been war time we would have all been killed. This is just a few of my somewhat amusing and somewhat disgusting experiences in the U.S.M.C. Old Irish.