The wave

By: sidney crews

I can’t remember if this took place in late 67 or early 68 . I was walking point on a road sweep headed towards Liberty Bridge .We had just left 4 corners from Hill 37 I was with H&S Co 3/7 Ammo tech. We were about half way to the Bridge. As I remember to the south of the road the tree line was about a hundred meters. On the left side the tree line seemed to be about 400 to 500 meters. The terrain was all flat ,old rice paddies. Sweeps can go pretty slow because the Engineers were always finding something. We had stopped and as I was standing there I noticed to to the north (left side of road ) all theses animals were coming out of the tree line .My first reaction was. Hey! something is causing this that shouldn’t be. Then I saw something I’ll never forget. Of course, I couldn’t tell right off . This took place within a minute. A line of water about 2 to 3 ft high came out of the tree line doing about 5 knots give or take a few and seemed to take up the whole horizon . The road we were on was about 20 meters high. Within a minute the wave had hit the road with such force it splashed up on me. In the mean time it’s like a chinese fire drill trying to get back to the hill. Within an hour the the whole hill is surrounded by water. The old bridge at the village of Dai Loc, the river ran at least 30 meters under the the span . After this happen the river was just a few meters under the bridge. For three days we couldn’t get off the hill until the water subsided. Nobody had ever seen or heard of this happening. Years later I was looking at an old Leatherneck magazine and there was an article about what took place. This phenomena takes place about ever 4 to 5 years .The waters from the snow , rain accumulate in the mountains then all of a sudden runs down into the valley. It was a sight to see .Did anybody else remember this. Semper Fi my friends. Sid Crews 3/7 November 66 thru July 68

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