My Own Choice

Our mission was to check out a gook village approximately 15 miles from the the HQ. We were to report back with enemy strength, if known, and any other intelligence information.

We left at 0500. There were five of us in the recon patrol. We were doing great until we came upon a gook patrol. They quickly surrounded us and we were theirs.

They took us back to their camp, after subduing us and taking our weapons. At the camp, we were quickly sgtripped of our uniforms, hands tied behind our backs, ankles tied together and dragged into a grass hut to contimplate our fate. For a couple of us, me included, this was the first time we had seen each other stripped down and naked. I looked at the other four in our patrol. Two of them had extremely hairy chests, one had a little bit of hair and the other one, as well as myself, had no chest hair.

One thing was common to us all: we all had a hard one looking at each other, buck-ass naked and tied up.

We were left in this condition for what seemed like hours. Actually it was only four hours. At this point a gook lieutenant came in to talk with us. He said that we were scum, we were Americans, and we deserved to die. He said that he was a campassionate man and the he would not kill us. This surprised all five of us. We expected to be taken out, tied up and shot immediately. The lieutenant said that he was not one to shoot prisoners, but would give us a choice on how we wanted to live or die. This took us all by surprise.

The lieutenant said that he had no use for Americans but that he was not one to shoot every American he came in contact with. He said that he had taken many American prisoners and had given them two options. One was to die and the other was to escape. He would give us the same options. With that he ordered eight of his soldiers to take us to a hut at the edge of the complex. We were paraded through the complex, naked, and suffered at the jeers and humiliation of his troops.

All five of us were herded into a bamboo hut and made to sit in a semi-circle around the floor. We were all anxious as to what was to happen next.

We sat on the floor, naked, for about two hours looking at each others growing cocks. The lieutenant then entered the hut and told us it was time for us to make the decision if we were to live or die. With this he ordered the guards to tie our ankles together with a cloth rope. He then ordered the guards to tie the rope to eye bolts that had been placed in the floor directly in front of each of us. The guards complied. They tied our ankles together, tied the end of the rope to the eye bolt on the floor and, with the exception of one sergeant, left the hut. The lieutenant, satisfied that his men had done a satifactory job, approached us. He told us that he would give us a choice to live or die. With that he opened a canvas pack that he was carrying. He pulled out five knives and placed them in front of each of us. The lieutenant said that each of these knives would be our salvation.

With this he told the sergeant, a young boy of about 15 years of age, to tend to his duties. He saluted, opened a canvass sack that he had around his shoulder, and produced five long steel nails, about four inches in length, and a hammer.

He walked over to the first man in our group, Pvt. Parker, reached down, grabbed his ball sack, pulled it tight, and hammered the five inch nail through the center of the ball sack and into the floor. He did the same to Pvt. Brown, Cpl. Howard, Cpl. Collins and myself.

The lieutenant saluted all five of us and said that it was time we made the most inmportant decision of our lives. He said the he was leaving, but before he left, he was going to set the hut on fire. With that statement, all of us looked at each other in disbelief. It didn't seem fair that we should survive all this just to be burned alive in a bamboo hut in southeast Asia. The lieutenant, seeing our surprise, said that we did have one avenue of escape. The knives that he had placed in front of us could be used to cut ourselves free of the nail that had been driven through our ball sacks. In short, if we wanted to live, we would have to cut our balls off.

With this, the lieutenant took a can of kerosene that the sergeant had brought in, and began to pour it around the bamboo hut. After he head poured out the kerosene, it was about a gallon, he took a match from his jacket pocket. He stuck the match and tossed it on the floor. Immediately the kerosene ignited. The lieutenant left and said that the decision to live or die was up to us.

The bamboo hut immediatley went up in flames and the heat became unbearable. We looked at each other in disbelief. In order to live and not burn to death we had to cut our nuts off!

Cpl. Collins, who was closest to the fire's beginning, began to screm, the heat was intence. He picked up the knife, put it to his ball sack, and made one quick cut. This freed his ball from the floor. He ran screaming from the burning hut.

Pvt. Brown was the next one to pick up the knife. He placed it to his ball sack, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and made one quick cut which severed his ball sack from his body. He,too, jumped up and ran from the burning hut.

Cpl. Howard and Pvt. Parker did the same thing. They looked at each other, both grabbing their knives at the same time, nodded to each other and whacked their sacks off, running to the safety of the outside.

I was lucky. I was furthest from the fire when it was started. I had a little time to think. But to think about what. The hut was on fire, I had my ball sack nailed to the floor and I was going to be burned alive if I didn't cut my ball sack off. Did I have a choice? I didn't think I did. The fire began to lap at my feet. It really started to burn. I leaned forward, grabbed the knife and looked at it. Ther shiny metal blade glistened in the flames of the fire. This was decision that would effect the rest of my live. I had no choice. I leaned backed to make my ball sack pull away from my body. I reached down and placed the blade of the knife against my sack. At the count of three I would sever my sack from my body. I started to count. One, two, and three. With three I pulled the blade across my ball sack from left to right. I fell back, my ball sack being severed from my body. To my surprise it really didn't hurt. I stood up and ran from the building.

Outside I was surprised to see the other four members of my squad being tended to by medics from the lieutenant's company. Medics were stitching up and tending to the wounds.

The lieutenant approached me and said that he was very gratefull of the choice that we had made. This is what he had expected of an American squad. He said that he would tend to our wounds and that tomorrow morning we would be hanged.