The Sound of Thunder

The Sound of Thunder

This is an M18 smoke grenade from the Vietnam era. It was carried by my father who was a Navy Medic attached to a Marine Company while he was over there. The grenade was with the rest of his gear, normally near the front for easy access. This type of grenade was used to signal the location for a medivac.

On patrol, his company came under fire from a sniper and one of my dad's marines took a round to the chest. Being the medic, he was up. Everything around him erupted as the marines unloaded their weapons into the suspected sniper nest. While my dad was working, his gear belt kept sliding down into his way, so he slung it up over his left shoulder so he could save his marine's life.

That rusty hole in the grenade? That is from a bullet fired from the sniper. The bullet is still there, however the grenade primer has long since been removed. The grenade had ended up landing right over his left shoulder blade - roughly the location of where his heart was.

A brief moment of frustration and a faulty smoke grenade ended up saving his life and the marine's (sucking chest wound - sealed with cellophane from a pack of cigarettes and medivac'd out after the fire fight).

Now for the plot twist:
That was some time in 1968.
I was born in 1970 - my sister in '76. I have two boys, and my sister 3 kids.

If that grenade hadn't have been there, or had ignited, and my father killed, neither my sister nor I would have been born, and our kids would not have existed, and I wouldn't be writing this now.

My dad passed away in 2001. He hated war. He knew better than most what it did to people - saw it first hand, lived it and tried to pick up the pieces and patch those poor souls back together again. He made it home in one physical piece, but he lived with the wounds for the rest of his life. He didn't think war was something to be celebrated. He voluntarily joined so someone else wouldn't be drafted, and then chose to be a medic so he could help save lives. He helped put back together both his guys and captured VC. When I was a kid I didn't understand why he would help the enemy. He said it was because we all bleed the same color.

"War isn't hell. It's insanity." ~Dad.

[Edit: quick correction thanks to @BoneyardRendezvous who knows his military gear better than I do]