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					The Visitors
				The sun was already hot, just one hour into the morning sky. The air was thick and the forecast promised to be another hot, sticky day. I was trying to boil some water in my steel helmet to prepare some C-ration coffee when I heard Corporal Jenkins yell something to no one in particular. He saw me, “Hey Spanky”, Jenks called down from atop the .50 caliber machine gun bunker that guarded the entrance to CAP Quebec-3, “tell the Gunny that the Lieutenant is coming down the road.  It never failed to amaze me how good Jenks’ eyesight was. All I could see was a jeep and a cloud of dust a long way off heading in our direction. But, Jenks could see that the occupant of the jeep was Lieutenant Vidito. Jenks’ eyesight was so good and he was such a good shot that the brass wanted him to become a sniper on more than one occasion. He turned them down each time because he didn’t want to leave the CAPs and his old buddy Zorba, who he had been with since they arrived in Viet Nam. They were truly the odd couple. Zorba grew up on the streets of New York and Jenks grew up in the backwoods of Missouri. I went into the command bunker to get the Gunny and waited with him in the middle of the compound until the Lieutenant arrived. I looked up at Jenks and saw that he was wearing his camouflage bush hat that was different from the ones the other Marines wore. Jenks’ hat looked like someone had taken a perfect bite out of the brim. When Jenks first arrived at Quebec-3 and I saw his hat for the first time I asked him about it. Jenks said it was like that because when he lay down behind a rice paddy dike he could look out through the small opening without exposing his face. When the Lieutenant climbed out of the jeep, I could tell by the expression on his face that this wasn’t going to be a social visit. Staff Sergeant Newman, who was always called Gunny by everyone, greeted the Lieutenant, “What brings you out to Indian Country?” “I came out here for a few reasons”, replied the Lieutenant, “but before I get into that I want to clear up one question, and it deals with discipline”. The Lieutenant looked out into the vastness of the rice paddies, and shaded his eyes from the glare of the sun, “I just past someone who I think is one of your Marines. I believe I saw J.T. riding a bicycle down the road. He had an AK-47 strapped across his back and he was wearing those World War II leggings that were yellow from being washed so much, you could spot them a mile away”...
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