The taste of amonsoon

Dear Editor:

Those of us, who had the pleasure of experiencing those windy, torrential downpours on Saturday afternoon of May 26th, can now say they had a taste of what it is like during a "Monsoon" season. It is kind of ironic that this type of storm happened to hit us only two days prior to "Memorial Day", bringing back memories of my encounter with a monsoon during my 13 month tour of duty in Vietnam. This is an every year occurrence in the tropical climate of countries in South East Asia, where during the months of September through October the monsoon season there begins.

Now, just imagine this extremely heavy rainfall we had in certain areas of Northeastern Pennsylvania continuing on with no let up for an entire month long period. When I had first arrived in Chu Lai, South Vietnam in 1968, I was assigned to an engineering outfit attached to the 1st Marine Division. At the time, I really didn't take much notice to our living quarters, or "hooch's" as they were called, being raised up off the sandy ground about two feet. They were crudely constructed small wooden, one floor buildings with large screened window openings, and a roof made of grooved sheets of tin. This one hooch would house eight of us Marine engineers, and it was nestled in the sand about 200 yards from the China Sea. Our job was to purify salty Sea water into fresh drinking water for all of the troops stationed here at our base camp, since the local water was too contaminated.

Fortunately, there were also Navy "Sea Bee's" stationed not far from us, so we had them excavate a large trench about 20 feet wide and about five feet deep, which extended through our living area and continued all the way to the China Sea. I never realized, only being in country a short time of about three months, why the Marines in my outfit were having this long, deep trench dug, until the monsoon season arrived in late September. This is something no one can possibly imagine until they have experienced a monsoon, being very similar to the recent windy, heavy rainfall we had here in Pennsylvania, only in Vietnam this extreme down pour would continue on at a steady pace like this for an entire month.

Well, after about a week of this continuous driving rainfall with temperatures ranging in the low to mid 40 degrees, I understood exactly why this large drainage ditch the Sea Bee's had constructed for us was so crucial, because it became a raging river flowing rapidly into the China Sea. I suppose our fellow Marines who were serving their tour of duty here the year before had their living area flooded out, and under water, so they passed on their overwhelming monsoon experiences to us incoming replacements in preparation.

During this period of the monsoon season in Vietnam, it became almost impossible to stay completely dry, and many of us suffered with what was called; "jungle rot" which infected different areas of our bodies from remaining wet for too long, since we performed most of our duties outside during the monsoon, where it mostly affected our feet. This was only one of the many challenges we had faced while serving in Vietnam, but now that I think back on this one particular monsoon experience, it was really the least of the many problems we had to endure at this time during the war.

John M. "Jack" Selby

Hometown