UGR: A Perfect Morning to Pretend Otherwise (639 hits)
Category: PoliticsRating: 1.69 on 14 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by HeimdallsMan (View user info) at 2006-06-19 09:46:00 EDT
Uber-Go-Round contest link: http://www.ubersite.com/m/89285
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yessir, I'm fine. No sir, I'm comfortable. Just talk inta the microphone here? Okay...
It was the same dang valley we'd humped through, seems like 30 times in the last three weeks. Charlie was all over the place. We'd chase 'em outta one ville and he'd show up at the next. We wasn't really doin' nothin' 'cept flyin' the flag today, and we didn't expect no trouble. Just a hot damn hike from one firebase to the next, about 10 clicks. We was takin' it easy and was about four clicks from home when we heard the mortar round comin' in.
Now these gooks in this valley was so inaccurate that we learned it was best to stay where you were when you heard the first round comin' in. That was the one place they was sure not to hit. Since it took 'em sometimes 20 rounds to bracket us, "20-round bracket" came to mean sumthin that seemed hard, but shouldn't be. They'd say things like, "C'mon, Patch, get that hole dug. It ain't no 20-round bracket." Yeah, they called me Patch. I made the mistake o' tellin' 'em about the cotton patch that my daddy had back in Alabama and I got the nickname right then and there.
Anyway, we all just kinda hunkered down and waited for the first round to land. We was headin' west and it looked like the sun was settin' right in the road. I was kinda lookin' at it and it seemed like it just exploded. That first round hit right in the damn middle of the road, takin' out about six guys, including Lieutenant Stanton and Jackson, our radio guy. The whole platoon just kinda froze. We didn't know howda react to it, ya know? I guess we was only froze for a few seconds, 'cause another round came in about 5 meters off the road and sure woke us all up.
Sar'nt Jefferson was yellin' at us, tellin' us ta get off the dang road. I just kinda rolled over since I was right next to the ditch, just as the third round hit. It hit in the same ditch I was jumpin' into. I heard shrapnel flyin' past me. Then there was a sound like a fastball hittin' a catcher's mitt. I turned around and saw Boats still standin' in the road, feelin' around on his stomach. His hands came away bloody. He looked up at me for a second and then just fell down, like a rag doll. I could hear his gear clatterin' to the ground. It was a awful sound.
Them mortar attacks always came in three rounds at a time. In the pause Sar'nt Jefferson was runnin' up and down the ditch, yellin' and haulin' on people, getting' 'em inta cover about 10 meters from the road. We all moved and was huggin' the ground by the time the next three rounds came in. They wasn't too close this time and we didn't lose nobody, thank God.
Sar'nt Jefferson was a nig... uh, colored, but he was pretty good at soldierin'. He got us all in a defensive position and started getting' the wounded looked at. He decided we better spend the night here and try to hit 'em in the mornin', right at first light. Nobody got much sleep that night, and about 0400 Sar'nt Jefferson came around gettin' everybody up an' movin'.
There was a small ville about 1000 meters south of us and Jefferson figured that the attack probably came from down there. He was plenty pissed off, I think mainly 'cause them gooks wasn't s'posed to be that good, ya know? He was pissed that they had actually managed to hit us, and he wanted ta take it to 'em. He put Shandel on point and had us movin' toward the ville before we really knew what was goin' on. I think Shandel was a mistake 'cause he was pretty green. Before we'd gone more 'n fifty meters he was up outta sight. He was movin' way too fast. Jefferson froze the rest of the platoon and went up to try to catch 'im, but he came back a couple minutes without 'im, said he was gone. We got movin' again anyway. Classy, the grenadier, was on point.
We could just see the roof of the first hootch above the elephant grass when there was a hollow bang up front. I'd been lookin' to the left like I was s'posed ta and when I looked forward all I saw was Classy's boots stickin' outta the brush. Musta been a booby trap or sumthin. We moved up real slow and by the time we got to 'im he was gone. We kept movin' but we was practically crawlin' 'cause we knew we was close.
Jefferson got up to where he could see the ville. I heard 'im mutter sumthin under his breath, and when I got up to where he had been I seen what he saw. It was Shandel all trussed up like a deer and hangin' from the side of one of the hootches. He had a wire around his neck and, um, all his guts was hangin' out.
The ville was really quiet. We couldn't hear nuthin at all 'cept for the bugs. Lookin' left an' right I could see that all the guys was really messed up about Shandel. He had been green, but he was a good kid. All of a sudden somebody yelled "Over there!" and started firin'. In one's an' two's everybody started cuttin' loose, just hosin' down the whole ville. I knew it was the wrong thing ta do, but before I knew it I was shootin' too. I wasn't really aimin' at anything, I just emptied my magazine at the nearest hootch.
Sar'nt Jefferson was yellin' at us "Cease fire! Cease fire!" but I think most o' the guys in the platoon spent half their ammo before they stopped. Jefferson stood up and said "C'mon, god damn it!" and headed inta the ville. We followed 'im until we got to the center of the ville. He hunkered down and froze us, then turned around an' gestured at me ta come up. I kneeled next to 'im and he whispered in my ear "I saw two VC go into that hootch over there. When I give the word I want you to put a grenade through the window. That'll be the signal for all of us to hit it with everything we got. Understand?"
I said I did. I guess he had me do it 'cause I was pretty good at chunkin' grenades. The word passed down an' everybody got into position. He nodded at me and I pulled the pin, popped the spoon and tossed the grenade. I was nervous but it went right where it was s'posed ta. It went off an' everybody started firin'. We musta fired for a good two, three minutes before Jefferson stopped us. When the firin' stopped it seemed like the whole world had gone quiet. We waited five, ten minutes but nothin' moved anywhere in the ville. Finally Jefferson stood up and started walkin' over to the hootch. We followed 'im, I reckon to get the body count. The hootch had damn near collapsed 'cause of all the lead that had poured inta it. It just looked like a pile o' sticks. I reached down and pulled some o' the thatch away and, um... we, uh, counted the bodies. There was twenty seven of 'em in there, twenty sev... uh, sorry. When we got to the firebase we reported a body count o' twenty seven enemy killed.
Well, no sir, that ain't entirely true. It was, umm, I guess Sar'nt Jefferson's idea. I mean it was just gooks right? If they'da growed up, I mean... well, nits make lice, that's what my grandad always used ta say, an' Sar'nt Jefferson thought it was a good idea, 'cause it could only o' made it harder for all o' us...
Yessir, sorry sir. When we looked in the wreckage o' that hootch, it wasn't VC. They was - ah God, they was all kids, little kids. Charlie had rounded 'em up so they couldn't give away the ambush and stuck 'em in this hootch. They musta had a tunnel entrance here and was usin' 'em as a shield.
Sar'nt Jefferson told us all just ta forget about this, that it was just VC in there, just VC. I guess I got pretty good at pretendin' 'cause after a while I didn't think about it anymore, and the dreams didn't start again until last year. It was... ah Christ, all them little kids...
* * * *
The witness could not continue after this point.
The events of the morning of September 12th, 1968, while despicable, are far too harmful to be released to the public. The effect of public release would far outweigh the affair's actual results. It is this commission's opinion that these files be permanently sealed and the official report of twenty seven slain Viet Cong soldiers be allowed to stand.
(Signed)
Senator Frank Church (D - ID)
United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities
1975
User Reviews
Submitted by Coleslaw_Murphy (user info) at 2006-06-20 21:05:05 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 next round bracket.
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2006-06-20 15:10:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You deserve to win this round against me, no question about it. I simply ran short on ideas and went with the easy route of a name-dropping poem. Nice job.
Submitted by ThoreauMe (user info) at 2006-06-19 23:49:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ghola (user info) at 2006-06-19 17:08:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
this was pretty good
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-06-19 15:51:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
fuckin' Shlongy.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2006-06-19 14:28:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Yahoo! My Yahoo! Mail Make Yahoo! your home page
Sign In
New User?Sign Up
Finance Home - Help
HomeInvestingNews & CommentaryRetirement & PlanningBanking & CreditLoansTaxesSpecial EditionsColumnistsPersonal FinanceInvesting IdeasMarketsCompany FinancesProvidersGet QuotesSymbol LookupFinance Search
AP
Foreclosures May Jump As ARMs Reset
Monday June 19, 2:20 pm ET
By J.W. Elphinstone, AP Business Writer
AP Centerpiece: Foreclosures Expected to Jump As Riskier Adjustable Mortgages Reset
NEW YORK (AP) -- As more hybrid adjustable rate mortgages adjust upward and housing prices dip, many Americans can't refinance out of this squeeze. They are finding themselves trapped in too-high monthly payments, and some face foreclosures.
ADVERTISEMENT
In 2003, Anita Britten refinanced her two-story brick cottage in Lithonia, Ga. using a hybrid adjustable rate mortgage, or ARM. Her lender reassured her that she could refinance out of the riskier loan into a traditional one when her interest rate started to reset.
Three years later, Britten can't get a new mortgage and her monthly payment has jumped by a third in six months. She can't afford her payments and may face foreclosure if her financial situation doesn't change.
For those who can't make their payments, foreclosure is the only way out.
Foreclosure figures just released by the Mortgage Bankers Association show that foreclosure activity fell in the first quarter of 2006 over the first quarter of 2005 for all loan categories except subprime loans. The MBA didn't specify how many of subprime loans were adjustable rate mortgages.
In the last several years, millions of Americans took equity out of their houses and refinanced when interest rates were at historical lows and housing prices were at record highs.
Many of them chose to refinance into hybrid ARMs that lenders were aggressively pushing. ARMs, which featured a low introductory interest rate that resets upward after a set period of time, were easier to qualify for than traditional fixed-rate loans.
ARMs are now starting to fall by the wayside as the difference in interest rates narrows. The average rate on a 30-year fixed rate loan in May was 6.60 percent compared to 5.63 percent on a one-year ARM, according to Freddie Mac. In 2003, rates on a 30-year fixed were at 6.54 percent, while ARMs carried a 3.76 percent rate.
This year, more than $300 billion worth of hybrid ARMs will readjust for the first time. That number will jump to approximately $1 trillion in 2007, according to the MBA. Monthly payments will leap too, many beyond what homeowners can afford.
For example, Britten's monthly payment jumped from $1,079 to $1,340 at the beginning of this year. It rose again on June 1 by another $104 and is scheduled to increase again in December. Britten, who is also paying off student loans, went to a credit counseling service to help her avoid foreclosure.
"I've gotten rid of all my credit cards and I'm not supposed to refinance for another year," she said. "All I can do is tread water right now."
"ARMs are a ticking time bomb," said Brad Geisen, president and chief executive of property tracker Foreclosure.com. "Through 2006 and 2007, I'm pretty sure we'll see a high volume of foreclosures."
Last year, foreclosures hit a historical low nationwide at about 50,000. But that number has more than doubled since then, according to Foreclosure.com.
And delinquency rates appear to be rising, as well. While delinquency rates fell for most types of loans from the fourth quarter of 2005 because of a stronger economy, delinquencies for both prime and subprime ARM loans increased year-over-year in the first quarter, according to the MBA.
The hardest hit states so far are those that have experienced the roughest times economically. Michigan, Texas and Georgia lead the pack, specifically around Detroit, Dallas and Atlanta, whose major employers have run into strikes, bankruptcies and industry downturns.
But as the housing market slows, experts expect foreclosures to skyrocket in those areas that have experienced the highest appreciation rate -- like California, Florida, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
"There is a direct correlation between foreclosure sales and market activity," said Dr. James Gaines, a research economist at The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "If the rate of appreciation is not there, then there is an increase in foreclosure sales."
Gaines pointed out that although California's default notices are rising by the thousands, actual foreclosure sales remain in the hundreds. Because of California's still-active housing market, homeowners there can sell their properties before going into foreclosure.
On the flip side, in less active markets like Texas and Georgia, homeowners can't find a buyer in
Anyway, that's what I think about it.
Submitted by goferforhire (user info) at 2006-06-19 13:33:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You had me at Yessir.
And the rest of the post was excellent as well.
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2006-06-19 13:20:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
this was fucking terrible...
...
...and by fucking terrible i mean the exact opposite of fucking terrible.
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2006-06-19 11:30:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
yep...
Submitted by Brdn_Nkd (user info) at 2006-06-19 11:25:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
very cool
Submitted by DrogoRoch (user info) at 2006-06-19 11:02:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Yep I liked it.
Submitted by Bigmike (user info) at 2006-06-19 10:44:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nicely done.
Submitted by hour_man (user info) at 2006-06-19 10:15:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Have another
Submitted by hour_man (user info) at 2006-06-19 09:52:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Interesting read