Milkrun

Once a month the convoy went,
On a resupply run we were sent.
Just another milkrun so they said,
But why the gunship overhead?

Is it just a gesture, our minds to soothe?
Or, do they know charlie's on the move?
Some went along just for the fun,
They thought it a breeze, this Long Binh run.

They didn't think they could end up dead.
Sent home in a box lined with lead.
Its a piece of cake they all said,
But what is the holdup up ahead?

At last the word comes down the line,
A village bus has hit a VC mine.
Moving again, we slowly drive past,
The horror caused by that awesome blast.

The broken twisted bodies of the wounded and dead,
The horror of it all still lives in my head.
The ones who came along just for fun,
Soon realized it was not just a milkrun.

That mine charlie set was meant for us,
Instead it took out a village bus.
You see charlie doesn't care who he kills,
And to blow up a bus doesn't take many skills.

It should have been us lying wounded and dead,
But this time charlie killed innocents instead.
Sometimes you lose, sometimes you win,
Just another milkrun, this trip to Long Binh.

©Lee O'Neill 13 July 1998