A cold day in Hue
By Jeff Manthos
It is a cold day in the Imperial City of Hue. Hue is in Vietnam. Vietnam is in hell. The Imperial city is
royally shattered, caving in to the latest war. Amidst this stands a Marine, behind a low stone fence. It
must be cold, he wears his field jacket.
Something bulges inside his jacket, in the crook of his right arm. His other arm out straight, balancing
the M-16 with tired experience, firing rounds at the enemy.
The bulge inside his jacket wiggles and squirms and a cold puppy nose pokes out, followed by a puppy
face and paws, all puppy energy and all held in check by the tender grip of the young Marine.
Somewhere back in the States a young man plops down a squirmy puppy and the young dog chases a
tennis ball and jumps into a pond to retrieve a stick. Upon returning, the puppy licks the young man?s
face getting muddy paw prints on good school clothes that?s likely the worst that will happen here.
Somewhere on the streets of Hue, in Tet of ?68 a young boy of a Marine holds his puppy. There is no
park, there is no pond, there are no tennis balls to chase. Just the deserted streets of Hue, in Vietnam,
in hell where a Marine, fighting for his life and his comrades is somehow simultaneously able to still
be a boy with his puppy
By Jeff Manthos
It is a cold day in the Imperial City of Hue. Hue is in Vietnam. Vietnam is in hell. The Imperial city is
royally shattered, caving in to the latest war. Amidst this stands a Marine, behind a low stone fence. It
must be cold, he wears his field jacket.
Something bulges inside his jacket, in the crook of his right arm. His other arm out straight, balancing
the M-16 with tired experience, firing rounds at the enemy.
The bulge inside his jacket wiggles and squirms and a cold puppy nose pokes out, followed by a puppy
face and paws, all puppy energy and all held in check by the tender grip of the young Marine.
Somewhere back in the States a young man plops down a squirmy puppy and the young dog chases a
tennis ball and jumps into a pond to retrieve a stick. Upon returning, the puppy licks the young man?s
face getting muddy paw prints on good school clothes that?s likely the worst that will happen here.
Somewhere on the streets of Hue, in Tet of ?68 a young boy of a Marine holds his puppy. There is no
park, there is no pond, there are no tennis balls to chase. Just the deserted streets of Hue, in Vietnam,
in hell where a Marine, fighting for his life and his comrades is somehow simultaneously able to still
be a boy with his puppy
