USMC COMBAT TOUR HAIKU TRILOGY Old salt remembers the long, the short, and the tall And an adventure Interesting Tour Third Battalion Fifth Marines Semper Fidelis To Okinawa Aboard APA Renville First March Sixty-Six Fleet Marine Force Pac East China and South China and Philippine Seas We sail through typhoon Landing Ship Tank to Japan Mount Fuji in Spring Swimming in Subic Overboard Man Overboard Three days bread water Training on island Isolated Japanese Surrenders to us On Liberty Call In Olongapo City A lesson learned Sit facing entrance Shore Patrol says off-limits Exit well planned LPH Princeton Contemplation till sunrise Guard duty on deck Vietnam Monsoon All hands heave out and trice up We are deploying Observe search destroy There are friendlies in region End to non-friendlies ***** Last one in first out Helicopter lifts off deck Drops to sea then soars Boarding hatch open Perfect view land air and sea Green hills rice paddies Sikorsky on ground Incoming rounds leave their mark Perimeter set Landing Zone secure Multiple lands and departs Bouncing back to ship Hot thick engulfing High power rifle cracks air Jungle labyrinth Scorpions leeches Elusive lime green habu Among punji stakes Mortars send welcome A deafening percussion Howitzers whistle Marine in his sight Take out Viet Cong sniper Then Phantom appears Slow tumbling barrel F-4 shrieks splashing napalm Opposite ridgeline Instantly silent Enemy cover erased This moment in time Civilians at ease Water buffaloes tiger And cobra observe Locate new LZ Our transport copters descend For next objective ***** Out of the jungle Transferred to urban combat Adjust momentum Three/Five alumnus To Military Police At Danang Airbase Secure area Troops coming in from the bush Christmas with Bob Hope Driving with Captain Separated at skirmish Find my own way back Returning Convoy Fifty-caliber vacant Clear jam open fire Walking fuel pipeline Sunset to sunrise duty Force Recon contact Need covert supply Case forty-five caliber Replenish grease guns Use infrared scope At perimeter outpost Function accurate During base patrol Disturbance at E M Club Ended with one round Training and weapons Extensions to our being Focus and humor Determination One year one month seven days Accelerated A traditional Bellicose experience Cosmic deja vu --Corporal Andrew Louis Syor, Jr. 2141430 U.S.M.C. Andrew L. Syor served as a United States Marine from 1965-69. Following discharge from the Corps, Andrew moved to Canada, where he resides. “USMC Combat Tour Haiku Trilogy” is his first published poem.