The Night in the Bank |
The first six months I was in country I walked a sentry dog at the ammo dump like every handler did. There were approximately fifty to sixty dogs in the company at that time. In addition to the sentry dogs the 212th had one patrol dog, and when his handler rotated home Sgt. Nichols (Kennel Master) called me in and told me I was going to be the new patrol dog handler, and my dog from this point on would be Storm. From that time forward, I not only was part of the 212th, but was also assigned and reported to the Provost Marshall over Long Binh. One evening before going to work I was called in to the Provost Marshall's office, as I went into his office I noticed that he had a serious look on his face,and he then told that what we discussed could not be repeated to anyone. He began to tell me how intelligence had picked up a tip that the local Chase Manhattan Bank was going to be broken into by the VC, I was told how the area in the vicinity of the bank would be saturated with MP's and APC's lurking in the shadows ready for the VC when they made their move. He said that Storm and I were going to be locked inside the bank as a last barrier of defense. I looked at him and and saw that he was dead serious, about this time I tried to swallow but my mouth was too dry. After the bank closed, and when it became dark Storm and I were put inside the bank and told to stay out of site (which was hard). We were given every weapon you can imagine to use if it became necessary. Hours and hours went by and nothing happened, I guess the intelligence was bad or they picked up on our plan. Anyway Storm had a ball on the slick tile floors, but he also found out that it was hard to get traction on waxed tile floors. It was a very long night, and at day light Storm and I were let out before anyone came to work.
I will always remember the
night when Storm and I were locked in the bank ,and I suppose the morning tellers at the bank will also remember us,
for Storm made several large deposits like they had never had before.
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