Thorne and the Monk Adventure
               
    One morning a few of us were picked for a detail and loaded on the back of a duce and a half (A 2 and 1/2 ton Military truck) It was covered so we couldn't see where we were going. After riding for some time one by one we were dropped off and then it came my turn. We were given no instructions as to what we were supposed to be there for are what we were supposed to do. At the place I was dropped off there was a fox hole and that was where I was to spend the next day. I was given two boxes of C - Rations and then the truck continued on down the line probably some half mile before dropping one of the other guys off.

    As I looked around all that could be seen to my left and right was heavy jungle and there was a strip I'd guess about 200 feet wide which had been cleared of all jungle and all that remained was short grass. You could see for miles in either direction. The grass, trees and all other foliage on both sides and in that corridor were a sickening almost iridescent orange color. The whole area had been sprayed with Agent Orange and from the color of everything I can see exactly why they named it Agent Orange!  I suspect that we were on the Cambodian border.

    Each box of C - Rations had a small pack of four or five cigarettes each in it and I was a heavy smoker at the time so those eight or ten cigarettes didn't last long. After exhausting my supply of cigarettes and getting really frustrated I pulled out the toilet tissue that came in the rations. These were small sheets of paper that was about the same width and length of the width of a normal role of toilet paper. ( I.e. about four inches by four inches.) It was also similar to the paper that cigarette are made out of so in desperation I decided to try and roll a cigarette out of the dead grass around the fox hole.  Of course at the time I didn't even know what Agent orange was, but from smoking that cigarette and being in that area I no doubt got a good dose of it.

    At this time there were two Arvin (Army Republic of Viet Nam) soldiers some 100 yards or so from me. They had a long wooden box piled on a bunch of dead wood and had been burning it. I had no idea what it was they were doing or why, but that was about to be answered. One of them had watched me making the grass cigarette and walked down to where I was. He told me that they were cremating a Buddhist Monk that the VC had killed. He handed me a pack of Viet Namese cigarettes and a tin cup which he said had teain it. I thanked him very much and he turned and went back to where the fire was dyeing down.

    I lit up one of the cigarettes and nearly gagged as it tasted like cigar tobacco rolled in a cigarette wrapper. I then took a big swig of the supposed tea to wash it down. One big swallow of that was all it took! It taste exactly like you might think drinking hot water with ash mixed in it would taste. I watched to make sure the Arvin Soldier weren't watching and dumped the rest of it out.

    Several days later and back at the fire base I told one of the NCO's (Non Commissioned Officers) about it and he said that when they cremate bodies they make tea from the ashes and drink it.  Supposedly the reasoning is that when you drink the tea you gain the essence of the person that was cremated. ( I.e. knowledge and so on) Needless to say I felt a strong urge to vomit! The moral to this story? "NEVER except tea from someone who has just cremated a body!)

    Don't get me wrong I was most appreciative of the gifts of the cigarettes because they tided me over until I got back to the fire base. I will say that they cut my smoking down by at least two thirds though. However, the tea I could have done without! I wonder if my occasional urge to shave my head and dawn a robe had anything to do with that? : )

    Copyright (C) 1997 By David Thorne Smith