Uncle Sam sent Lisa's uncle to the Far East, when he returned he was not alone. All characters in this work of fiction, including Kamea who is based on Lisa's aunt, are aged 18 or older.
The Bring Back
JUNE 1971
Dad served in the Philippines in 1944-45, he brought a funky looking "Papa Nambu" pistol back from the campaign. Uncle Dave was sent to Italy in '43 and he brought a really cool little Beretta M1935 back with him. Mr. McCutcheon, our history teacher, has a Mauser Kar98 he took from an EPW in Bavaria. But my brother Karl had them all beat.
We drove five hours east to the new Intercontinental Airport north of Houston to meet the Seaboard DC-8 that was flying my brother Karl home from his tour in southeast Asia. He had served twelve months with Company B, 1st Battalion, 223rd Infantry Regiment, 11th Infantry Brigade, 101st Infantry Division in Vietnam and Laos.
The big airliner disgorged its passengers, and Karl walked across the airbridge to see us in his short sleeved Khaki army uniform. But it was difficult to hug him. He seemed to have a very cute, rather young, kinda short, oriental woman attached to his wrist with a handcuff.
He shook hands, and hugged as best he could and introduced us all to Kamea, his "war trophy."
"War trophy," said Uncle Dave, "like my Beretta?"
"Sorta," said Karl, "Ostensibly Regiment was quartered at Khe Sanh. Supporting an ARVN attack into Laos to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We had the helicopters so we flew in there all of the time. But in March Battalion was finally ordered in country to stay.
We had to set up a firebase across the border in Laos, to rescue the ARVNs who were by that time in full retreat out of the place. We went in and set up a defensive perimeter so all of the Little People might be able to stop, and perhaps find their asses using both hands. The operation required that we depopulate a couple of villages. Kamea here lived in one of them."
"If you go to battle against your enemies," said Grandpa Mark, quoting Deuteronomy 21:10 from memory, "and the Lord your God delivers them into your control, you may take some prisoners captive."
"Yup," said Karl, "little Kamea here has nobody. So I brought her back."
"What," I said, "a human being?"
"The DD form 37A doesn't specify, "spoils of war," and all that. My S-2 and G-2 signed it so it's all legit."
"You own Kamea?" I said.
"Not exactly." Said Karl, "I have to marry her if she wants to marry me. And there are beaucoup forms to fill, but she's kinda outta options here. She can live in the land of the big PX, or go back, and try to live between her fratricidal neighbors trying to kill one another in her hootch."
"Really?" I said.
"21:11," said grandpa. "'If you see among the prisoners a beautiful woman and you desire her, then you may take her as your wife.'"
"Damn," I said.
"OK," Uncle Dave said, "what do we do now."
"We have to get Kamea some stuff," Karl said.
So we went shopping down at Town and Country Village in Houston and bought Kammy a nice wig, some new underwear and a few simple tasteful dresses before driving back to Edwards. She knew quite a bit of english, I could see that she understood people, but she barely spoke. It all must have been terribly traumatic.
"Sharon," Karl said as we were looking at dresses, "can you ask Lisa if we can borrow the cabin. I thought maybe that you girls could talk to her and explain things. So she can make an informed choice."
"Yeah," I said, "but why me and not you."
