Now that I thought about it, maybe such ‘soft’ duties had been assigned to him because of the horrors he had been through in his two tours of duty in ‘Nam. Maybe, beneath that confident and impressive exterior, the man was actually quite fragile. Can’t say now. Couldn’t say then. But it was certainly odd. In my mind’s eye, I could still see the blackboard in that seminar room. It was covered in circles and arrows but only one phrase appeared on it: “Form a Perimeter”. What did that mean? And did it only apply in jungle warfare? After wracking my brain for a while, I decided it could only have meant one of two things: 1. When entering unfamiliar territory, surround it and attack; or 2. When already in such a place, spread out and form a defensive circle around where you find yourself. I remembered the reg had spoken of his platoon being repeatedly dropped by Chinook helicopter behind enemy lines, in territory controlled by the VC (Viet Cong) – or ‘Charlie’ as he preferred to call them. Would it make sense for a small group of men to land (fairly obtrusively) at one point, immediately fan out widely and try to encircle an unseen enemy – an enemy which was, of course, entirely familiar with its own home territory? Nope, I decided. That would be plain dumb. The fragile circle that you formed in this way could be attacked by the enemy both from the inside and by those still outside it. So, strike out option 1 and tick option 2. So, in the seminar, ‘Form a perimeter’ had obviously meant ‘Form a Defensive Perimeter’ – i.e. around your ‘point of insertion’ into the battle zone. (You see, I must have been paying attention, after all!) In any event, this conclusion, in my mind at least, represented progress.
Lemmyn, wosa lies blydhen ombrederans, martesen deverow ‘medhel’ a’n par ma re via appoyntyes dhodho drefenn an euth re welsa ev dres y dhew dorn- dever yn ‘Nam. Martesen, yn-dann y du war-ves, meur y fydhyans ha poesekter, yth esa yn hwir den pur vrottel. Ny allav leverel lemmyn. Ny yllyn leverel ena. Byttegyns, koynt o yn sertan. Y’n dhewlagas ow brys vy, y hyllyn gweles hwath bordh du an stevell-semynar. Gorherys o gans skrifa treys-kelyon: kylghyow ha sethenyow. Byttegyns, nyns esa saw unn lavarenn skrifys warnodho: “Gwrewgh Furvya Kylghvusur”. Pyth a styrya henna? Ha, dres henna, a bertaynya an messaj ma dhe vresel yn gwylgoes hepken? Wosa kartha ow ympynnyon dres pols, my a erviras na ylli an geryow ma styrya saw onan yntra diw dhra: 1. Pan entrir y’n le anaswonnys, gwra kylgh oll a-dro dhodho rag gul omsettyans warnodho; po 2. Pan omgevir seulabrys yn le a’n par na, res o dhywgh omlesa rag furvya kylgh omwithek oll a-dro dhe’n le na. My a borthas kov an reg dhe gewsel a-dro dh’y barsell soudoryon. Y fia gesys dhe goedha lieskweyth a-dryv linennow an eskar, yn ranndiryow rewlys gans an VK (Viet Kong) – po ‘Charli’, dell wre an reg leverel. A via herwydh reson y tirsa (poran yn apert) bagas byghan soudoryon dhe unn le hag, a-dhistowgh, omlesa ledan rag assaya gul kylgh a-dro dhe eskar anweladow – eskar, heb mar, a aswonnsa yn ta y ranndir y honan? Na via, a erviris. Gul henna a via gokki yn tien. An kylgh brottel a allsewgh furvya y’n fordh ma a allsa bos omsettyes gans an eskar dhiworth an dhew dhu, dhiworth a-bervedh hag yn-mes. Ytho, ankevewgh dewis onan ha gorrewgh tykk a-berth y’n nessa kistenn. Ytho, y’n semynar, “Gwrewgh Furvya Kylghvusur” re styrsa, yn apert, “Gwrewgh Furvya Kylghvusur Omwithek” – henn yw leverel, a-dro dhe’n ‘le ynworrans’ war bark an vatel. (Dell yllowgh gweles, yth esov vy owth attendya, wosa oll!) Yn neb kas, an konklusyon ma, dhe’m breus vy dhe’n lyha, o avonsyans ragon ni.langbot langbot