Barnard

By Scott Baker Sweeney

Two childhood friends of different race growing up in rural Indiana in the 1960s get separated by an ignorant society, later, get reunited in Vietnam.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9798823018111

Scott Baker Sweeney

I, too, am a typical Indiana country boy. I attribute a lot of my creative imagination from being raised in the country. I spent many of my childhood days playing in the corn fields and wooded ravines which surrounded my home pretending to be a cowboy, fighting Indians or an Army man, trying to recapture a hill from the enemy. Today I live in the suburbs outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. Between my beautiful wife and I, we have four wonderful kids; one mine, two hers, and one ours. When I’m not at the office Monday through Friday doing my daytime job (vice president of a large construction company), you will find me at the gym working out; attending my youngest son’s tae kwon do. basketball events or in front of the computer writing. If you ask anyone who knows me, they will tell you that my true passion is sailing. Sailing is not an activity, it’s an expression of art.It’s caputuring one of nature’s elements (wind) momentarily to cause a reaction to an inanimate object (boat). If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you have never experienced the beauty of sailing.

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© 2023 Scott Baker Sweeney. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   11/17/2023

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1812-8 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1813-5 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-1811-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023922235

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Chapter 1   September 3rd, 1967

Chapter 2   Spring 1954

Chapter 3   The Introduction

Chapter 4   Separate Pews

Chapter 5   Swallowed by an Eel

Chapter 6   Back to Mekong

Chapter 7   The Horrors of war

Chapter 8   Off For Good Behavior

Chapter 9   Collecting Vidence

Chapter 10   Skin Color

Chapter 11   School and Sports

Chapter 12   The Draft

Chapter 13   A Recruit Named Kim

Chapter 14   A Private Love Affair

Chapter 15   No Parade for Russel

Chapter 16   A Straight Shooter

Chapter 17   Readjustment

Chapter 18   September 1, 1967

Chapter 19   Painful labor

Chapter 20   Swallowed by Mekong

Chapter 21   Mission accomplished, another just beginning

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Chapter 1

September 3rd, 1967

It was a typical day of Hell in Cambodia, extremely hot and very humid. Especially drudging through a jungle that paralleled the shore of the Mekong River. Loaded down with an M-16 Riffle and Marine gear, Lieutenant Jack McBride along with his battalion were following simple orders to stealthily patrol the shore of Mekong River and remove any Vietcong they encountered. This simple order resulted in the weekly loss of 3 to 5 members of his unit. Because of the duplicitous terrain American troops being captured and transported to a prison camp was not an option for this evil Communist army. If you were not already shot dead, but captured instead, they would shoot you in the head and toss your body into the river.

The Good Guys knew this and would fight till the end. Especially the Marines, there was no surrendering for this branch of the service and there was certainly ‘’no man left behind’’!

If the climate conditions or the Godless brutal enemy wasn’t bad enough, the unpredictable river was!

Because of the large amounts of precipitation which usually dropped in quick volumes, the river would rise seemingly in minutes. So, crossing it was always a risk. What appeared to be a benign shallow creek could suddenly change into a roaring river without warning caused from a deluge of rain sometimes as far away upstream as 30 miles.

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Chapter 2

Spring 1954

The McBride’s were country folk, plain and simple! Their rural home was up on a hill and positioned deep in a forest of maples, walnut, and pine trees. The house sat roughly 500 lineal from the State Road making it virtually undetectable. During the winter months once the leaves have shed, you could see a portion of their pitched roof and brick chimney. If it weren’t for the mailbox and gravel drive entrance from the highway no one would suspect that there was a dwelling on top of the hill. Paul McBride, father of three, worked at a grain mill about 5 miles away. His wife Kathy stayed at home with Jack, and his two older siblings, Bobby Joe, and Molly.

The closest town, if you can call it that, was Barnard, a little over a mile away. Barnard was comprised of a little grocery store/gas station and seven homes.

Bailys Grocery was not just a grocery store it was a greeting place. It was a haven for anyone who caused the tiny bell to ring when opening the door. It was a coffee shop before there were coffee shops.

It was a social club before there were social clubs. If you desperately needed something, Bailys was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Normally, they would open at 6 AM and close at 6 PM and would of course be closed on Sunday. This was long before anyone could imagine such a thing.

The store was also their residence. Mr. Baily built a one bedroom, one bath addition onto the back prior to opening the establishment.

Mr. and Mrs. Baily weren’t just the proprietors of the store! Despite being married for thirty years and without children of their own, they were Mother and Father, or Grandma and Grandpa to everyone in the community. They knew everyone’s name. They not just knew names, but they also knew everything about that individual. They loved everyone and in turn they were loved dearly by everyone in the community!

Because of the central location the school bus would stop in front of Bailys to let five kids off each day at 4 o’clock. Mrs. Baily always had an iced tea ready for bus driver Louis Norman. She also served as babysitter for three of the five kids.

She watched them until a parent got home from work and made sure that they got