Prologue

Prologue

Not far from Da Nang, there was a place called Monkey Mountain.  It may still be there �" at least, the mountain and the monkeys.  What goes on there now, I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.  I didn’t really want to know when I first went there at $98 a month.  There is not any amount of any currency that would make me go back.

For I can still see Monkey Mountain, and in the most unexpected places �" riding a motorcycle in the White Mountains, or hiking in the Adirondacks, or camping in the Sierra Nevadas.  Or, worst of all, very early in the mornings, twisted in sweat-soaked sheets, to find myself staring at the concerned and shocked face of the young woman who was not even born when Dien Bien Phu fell.  In 1968, Monkey Mountain was the intelligence gathering outpost for the Vietnam Theater reporting back to NSA Far East at Torii Station on Okinawa.  The brass called it a “Theater”, but it was more like a side show.  I arrived there in April of that year, the Tet, “Year of the Monkey”, wearing just a few stripes, but I was no ordinary A1/C.

Actually, I had been more of a scholar than a warrior since enlisting back in Boston.  I could speak Mandarin as well as a Ming courtier, and Vietnamese as well as a drunken Coolie.  The only Air Force planes I had been in were the ones that flew me from Travis AFB to Kadena AFB and from Kadena AFB to DaNang.

 

Just before graduation from Security School at Goodfellow AFB, Texas, they’d shown us our pictures in Pravda.  We were all duly impressed, but we were used to mock-ups, so we were also more than a little dubious.  Unfortunately, I was to see that same copy of Pravda in the archives of the San Francisco Public Library and my picture was there.  Right then, I should have known what was in store for me…

Reviews

[Taylor]

This is the first piece of yours I've read and I'll be back for more. My approach to reviewing is to give the writer what I hope t receive when others review my work. Simply, it's honesty, hopefully couched in constructive and encouraging ways. My goal is to grow as a writer and without forthright feedback, the pace of growth is likely to be much slower. Having said that, my assessment of this Prologue is "well done." Most of the time on Writerscafe, I see Prologues that try to set out the entire story instead of tantalizing the reader. You suggest what is to come and engender feelings both of dread and curiosity, a perfect combination to get the lazy slug to turn the page. My only suggestion is to look back over the sentence that reads: " There is not any amount of any currency that would make me go back." For emphasis and to firmly set the timeframe, you might consider starting that sentence with, "Now...."

[Kayja Symphious]

As soon as I read Da Nang, I knew where this was going. I have great anticipation for this, and look forward to reading the next chapter.

Great Prologue.