Rat Patrol
I think that I shall never see a creature as nasty and ugly as a rat,
They carry diseases that will often knock us human beings flat.
So every time I see one of those awful abominations in my world
I hunt them down and mash them until their tail with no hair curls.
This poem provides my version of the Rat Patrol in Vietnam,
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Rat Patrol
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About once per week in Vietnam, I had guard at the air section,
We just had to stay awake at the air section building for it’s protection,
While making a round every two hours to check all the helicopters,
But I never saw anyone ever out there messing with our choppers.
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Chris Serrano is standing in front of the Air Section Building we guarded on Artilliry Hill in Vietnam..
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So I had a lot of awake time there in the air strip building at night,
And I devised a game that I played called Rat Patrol in the light.
I made me a fine sling shot like I had when I was a young kid.
With a carved handle and surgical rubber tubes cut to length to fit.
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I would open some C Rations and pull out the crackers in there,
And lay them near one of the rat holes in our section walls with care.
Then find a nice comfortable place to just sit there and stare,
Being still not moving, and a rat would usually come out of his lair.
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Army issue C Rations providing my Rat Patrol bait.
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When that rat was busy eating that cracker I had left for bait,
I would take careful aim with my sling shot and after a brief wait,
Let that round hard rock fly straight at that great big ugly rat.
I usually hit them the first shot as I had time to practice for that.
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Hey big boy, I’ve got you in my slingshot crosshair sights.
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Occasionally, I would miss a shot and that rock would then ricochet,
Around the room hitting me, causing me loud curse words to say,
As that flying rock that would kill a rat hurt a lot hitting my back.
But it was a risk I was willing to take for my fun on my rat attacks.
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Most of the time I knocked em down on the first shot.
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When I killed ugly rats, I laid them top on of our bunker outside,
Just out behind the Air Section Building to the northwest side.
To display them for all to see the results of my Rat Patrol kill.
Sometimes I killed up to five rats in one night sitting so still.
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This is the bunker out back or the Air Section Building. There appears to be rat remains on top now.
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You may think hunting rats on my Air Section guard was not good,
But all I had to do was be awake to keep others out like I should,
And make a round outside every two hours checking the grounds,
So rat killing helped pass time better than anything I ever found,
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If you have ever woken up with a rat walking on your bare chest,
You too would develop a hatred for rats and them really detest.
So killing the nasty pests also gave me some satisfaction too,
That sometimes helped me sleep better as good things often do.
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So don’t condem me or call me serial killer for killing those rats,
As it was sort of self defense to keep them out of my own rack,
Think how you would feel to wake up with that rat on top of you,
And perhaps you will then understand why I hate them like I do.
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That big black cat we once had also hated rats as much as I do.
As he caught every rat in the neighborhood and a squirrel or two.
That’s why I loved the old black cat that went on Rat Patrol too.
Keeping our home area safe and rat free for my children and you.
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Midnight was a good old cat killing those nasty old rats.
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By Bill
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Thanks for reading Rat Patrol,
Bill